Foam rock wall for my 180 gal tank

[gandolf8]

I have been working on a foam rock wall for a month now . This is a lot of work so here are some picture to show you how far i got.

I will post more later as I progress.

 

[gmate]

Looks great. Did you make it in-tank? I assume that would be much harder. I made mine outside the tank in pieces, then siliconed it in. Mine was a 55g corner bowfront. Here's some pictures:

Rock when it was first in tank, look at the difference in coloration:

Hard to tell, this picture is two months ago, but the rock is almost perfectly blended already. Only took 4 months to complete make the rock blend in:

Dry marco rocks with Tetra UV safe / aquarium grade pond foam from Lowe's. No expoxy or anything. I had to cut the pieces to fit together snuggly afterwords and went through three tubes of silicone making sure everything was perfect. Love it for a corner build, don't know if I'd do it for a rectangle. I did everything for my tank in one long weekend. Would love to hear your take on your build.

What foam did you use? Where did you get your dry rock? Did you coat in epoxy afterwords?

Keep us posted


- Glenn

 

[Flanders]

I just finished one just using regular great stuff from HD. took a ton of epoxy to cover up, and many many coats of sand. I would have gone with the black foam if I was doing it again.

 

[gmate]

I just finished one just using regular great stuff from HD. took a ton of epoxy to cover up, and many many coats of sand. I would have gone with the black foam if I was doing it again.

I've read on RC that Great Stuff is not aquarium safe and breaks down after a few years unless absolutely covered in Epoxy...I definitely recommend the Tetra Pond foam in the future. Spray once and ya don't have to worry about it. It was only 5 dollars a can, I went through three on my build.

 

[gandolf8]

did all this outside the tank you are right about the great stuff it will break down

 

[Flanders]

Mine has many coats of epoxy and is in a cave section so I'm not concerned.

 

[gary greguire]

very nice wish I had done something like that in mine.

 

[tent boy]

Do wastes collect behind these walls?

 

[gmate]

Do wastes collect behind these walls?

If you silicone it in properly they are effectively water tight. Any water that does get trapped behind there is from when I originally filled the tank. There is effectively no flow back there so nothing goes in or comes out. I haven't had any problems at all with Nitrates.