Idea for Faux sand bed. Envirotex Lite high gloss finish.

CamBarr,
I see you've found another faux-sandbed thread (this 1). I like the looks of these results even better than the pvc glue method. If I were setting up another tank now I think it is what I would go with. Have you decided how to go about your 30 gal sps tank?
Allen
 
Hi Jeff, I am in the middle of moving from AZ to Tx and will be giving this a try on a 20l first when I get there. I love the look, ver clean, no junk showing and growing under the sand in the front of the tank. May contact you about it in the near future. Thanks a bunch. karen
gqjeff said:
TY very much... If you click my www link I have some newer pics... The bed is about 1/4 deep... It is made exactly like this thread.. The only thing I did different that worked really good for me was to dry some sand for a week before hand. What I did with this sand after it was dried was put it in a strainer and sift it over the mix of epoxy and sand until i could not see the clear epoxy seeping out any longer... It looks completly natural.. I have had some other reef keeping friends come by and they always ask how can I have so much flow with the sand.. I start to chuckle then comes the 15 minutes explination of what I did hahahah.. I absolutly love it and would never have another tank without it... If you click my gallery you can see some closeups of the bed before water was put into the tank... for my 240 I used about 60-80lbs southdown and 1.5 gallons of environlight tex... If you want to know anything else PM me and I will give you my cell number and I can maybe explian it better.. I am not a fast typer or a good typer for that matter..

Peace, jeff
Click to expand...
 
Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed the visit.
Roses are my passion as are brains and xenia. But I guess I love all of the saltwater stuff. lol. Just cant have to many tanks.
Or can we???


gqjeff said:
Karen, you have a very nice site and setup also....
Click to expand...
 
RonSF said:
I am going to use high density polyurethane foam, sculpt it to have an inch or two of relief, cut out some areas to embed LR, then coat it with epoxy and sand. Before the epoxy cures, I will smash the LR into the mix.
Click to expand...
It sounds like an interesting idea. I was thinking about it though and have a concern. The foam is basically alot of air. When it is coated with the epoxy/sand mix and the mix hardens the epoxy/sand will become a structural element. It will be holding up the rocks above and keeping the water pressure from compressing the foam with its trapped air bubbles. If the epoxy shell is not structurally up the the task it will crack and mess up the base. The foam alone would not be as vulnerable since a bit of compression from the water pressure would just deform it. It is not a rigid structure that would crack. Besides, has the foam been used under live rock or only on the sides or back?
My suggestion would be to stick some foam to a piece of plexiglass or something, coat it with the epoxy and sand mix and when cured submerge it in a bucket or tank filled with water, with a few rocks piled on top. If the coating doesn't crack under stress you may end up with a very nice result in your tank. If it cracks you may have to rethink the foam. Just a thought.
Allen
 
ReeferAl said:
It sounds like an interesting idea. I was thinking about it though and have a concern. The foam is basically alot of air. When it is coated with the epoxy/sand mix and the mix hardens the epoxy/sand will become a structural element. It will be holding up the rocks above and keeping the water pressure from compressing the foam with its trapped air bubbles. If the epoxy shell is not structurally up the the task it will crack and mess up the base.
Click to expand...
Allen-
Your point would be valid if I were planning on using a fairly low density foam, like the Great Stuff in a can, but I'm going with a higher density material. I plan on using some urethane foam that I have left over as scrap. It is 14 lb. density (the bead foam that ice chests are made from is 1 lb. density, for comparison sake). The stuff is soft enough that you can dig your fingernail into it, but just barely. Once the resin goes on (probably 2 layers) it will be extremely tough, so I don't think it will be failing from weight issues. My only concern would be cracking from long term UV exposure, but I'm hoping that UV won't be an issue using marine epoxy.

My biggest concern at the moment is how I treat the edges. I'd rather not glue it in permanently into the tank and haven't decided if I want to taper it at the sides down to no thickness, or keep it 3/4" plus at the edges and try to pack loose sand between the foam/resin substrate and the glass sides. I know that it will look the nicest if I go with the latter plan, but don't want it to start looking green and yucky like a DSB on the edges and don't know if my closed loop will wash it all away regardless.

-Ron
 
standard 240 96*24*24

environlite tex is the epoxy..

I am not having any problems with silicates at all from this...

Yes I have coralline starting to take off on the bed also.. If you click on my gallery and my www page you can see a few pics.. I need to take allot more pics and also some closeups...

Karen PM me anytime...

Peace, Jeff
 
I would really have a concern about using epoxy with MH lighting as epoxy does nor standup to UV for very long. I had a fiberglass repair co. in Fla. for 10 yrs and anytime we used epoxy on a boat if it was going to be exposed to the sun we painted it over and not with epoxy paint but with polyurethanes. Just a thought.
 
jmann said:
I would really have a concern about using epoxy with MH lighting as epoxy does nor standup to UV for very long. I had a fiberglass repair co. in Fla. for 10 yrs and anytime we used epoxy on a boat if it was going to be exposed to the sun we painted it over and not with epoxy paint but with polyurethanes. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

I would imagine that a MH lamp would not havenearly the same UV output as the sun. Most people use a piece of glass that filters UV light on their tank anyway. In an SE bulb, the outer shell is the UV filter, and on a DE setup, you have to add a filter.
 
also the sand is mixed with the epoxy so the epoxy gets no UV.. I went over the wet epoxy and put a layer of sand on top.. Then waited for it to dry and vacumed out the rest.. I do not think it will be a concern at all with this technique.. Also and said above SE is UV sheilded....
 
Jeff:
Do you think the epoxy sand mix gives the same protection as the cutting board/starboard would? The epoxy seems like it would be a hard surface which would transmit the fall of a rock to the glass and the starboard seems like it would have more give.
Is this a concern, have you dropped a rock on it yet?
thanks,
Jonathan
 
Just bought some pour-on high gloss epoxy coating from Home Depot. The stuff is called Famowood Glaze Coat. I'll try the faux sand bed this weekend. Let you guys know how this turns out. Anyone out there have any bad experiences with this product? Let me know before I mess this starboard up.

Great thread GQJeff. Thanks for starting this up.
 
The stuff the I purchased from Home Depot worked great! followed the same procedure that GQJeff did, mix in the sand with the epoxy, pour on to the starboard, sprinkle more sand when epoxy begins to show through sand. Looks great. Thanks GQJeff for starting this thread.
 
twokayaks, I didn;t start the thread but I did do this and I am happy as can be.. Did you check though and see if they epoxy was silicate free and also able to withstand saltwater? I just used this epoxy because the guy who started this thread checked into it before hand.. That would be my only concern using a different type or brand of epoxy.. Glad it has worked for you though.. Like I said I would never go DSB again I have a ton of flow and no more ruining my pump sills...


Peace, jeff
 
You guys are killing me. I have my new Starboard BB 120 ready to add water, when I started reading this thread. The epoxy/sand combo looks sweeet! I wish I knew all would be well in a year or two?

I was thinking about removing my Starboard and coating them with the epoxy/sand combo and having them be removable still. Any thoughts? Perhaps it will not stick to the starboard? It would not look as perfect as your but????? I wish your epoxy systems were a few years old....

Here is my system ready for the next step.
77182Frame6.jpg
 
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