jasonh
New member
Hi all,
Being inspired by Kannin's thread, my wife and I started working on our own foam wall for our 70g reef.
We don't have any base rock laying around, so it's really just the background, but it's turning out awesome. Just thought I'd share the progress thus far:
A couple of the pieces all foamed up. We were originally going to do the back wall, the overflow, and one side of the tank. We have all the pieces, but have since decided to only do the back and corner overflow.
Here is a closeup of one of the pieces. While the foam was still wet, we sprinkled on some sand, just to give it a little initial texture. Once the foam is dry, the sand is permanently attached. We also poked in a few short pieces of PVC, so we will have some mounting points for frags should we decide to use them.
We were going to install some 90deg PVC elbows onto the sides of the overflow for mounting points, but we forgot to ziptie them before the foam, and they just wouldn't stay in the foam alone.
Coincidentally, I discovered a cool way to disguise intank plumbing. Just use the Great Stuff foam and roll your PVC in it. Once dried it has a really cool "rocky" texture and I think it would blend in a bit better. I'll see if I can get a picture of this later.
We had to do the project in a couple pieces in order to get them into the tank. Because of this, we had to trim away a few inches of the overflow foam, and then use some trickery with saran wrap between the pieces and in the tank to fill in the voids and make the pieces match up.
So this is how it sits at the moment. Hopefully tomorrow we can take the pieces out of the tank (and hope they come apart nicely and fit back together) and start applying the epoxy. We're using the same "20 min finish" epoxy that Kannin used in his thread. We will apply it to all foam surfaces, and then sprinkle more sand on the pieces. Once this is done and cured, we will silicone everything in place.
Don't mind the piece of wood and Pepsi box...that was just to get everything staying in place. The pieces seemed to have warped a little bit over night. They weren't on a very flat surface when we made them, and it was super cold in the garage, so that could have something to do with it.
The tank has a glass overflow. The foam piece covers this and eggcrate extends all the way to the top of the rim. But the foam "rock" stops short of that, hiding the glass, but the overflow stays functional and it gets a built in strainer. I'll have to get a closeup of that eventually.
By the way, I wouldn't lay your eggcrate on cardboard and then foam...it's really tough to get off.
Anyway, that's all for now.
Jason
Being inspired by Kannin's thread, my wife and I started working on our own foam wall for our 70g reef.
We don't have any base rock laying around, so it's really just the background, but it's turning out awesome. Just thought I'd share the progress thus far:
A couple of the pieces all foamed up. We were originally going to do the back wall, the overflow, and one side of the tank. We have all the pieces, but have since decided to only do the back and corner overflow.
Here is a closeup of one of the pieces. While the foam was still wet, we sprinkled on some sand, just to give it a little initial texture. Once the foam is dry, the sand is permanently attached. We also poked in a few short pieces of PVC, so we will have some mounting points for frags should we decide to use them.
We were going to install some 90deg PVC elbows onto the sides of the overflow for mounting points, but we forgot to ziptie them before the foam, and they just wouldn't stay in the foam alone.
Coincidentally, I discovered a cool way to disguise intank plumbing. Just use the Great Stuff foam and roll your PVC in it. Once dried it has a really cool "rocky" texture and I think it would blend in a bit better. I'll see if I can get a picture of this later.
We had to do the project in a couple pieces in order to get them into the tank. Because of this, we had to trim away a few inches of the overflow foam, and then use some trickery with saran wrap between the pieces and in the tank to fill in the voids and make the pieces match up.
So this is how it sits at the moment. Hopefully tomorrow we can take the pieces out of the tank (and hope they come apart nicely and fit back together) and start applying the epoxy. We're using the same "20 min finish" epoxy that Kannin used in his thread. We will apply it to all foam surfaces, and then sprinkle more sand on the pieces. Once this is done and cured, we will silicone everything in place.
Don't mind the piece of wood and Pepsi box...that was just to get everything staying in place. The pieces seemed to have warped a little bit over night. They weren't on a very flat surface when we made them, and it was super cold in the garage, so that could have something to do with it.
The tank has a glass overflow. The foam piece covers this and eggcrate extends all the way to the top of the rim. But the foam "rock" stops short of that, hiding the glass, but the overflow stays functional and it gets a built in strainer. I'll have to get a closeup of that eventually.
By the way, I wouldn't lay your eggcrate on cardboard and then foam...it's really tough to get off.
Anyway, that's all for now.
Jason