The Foam/rock Projects Here Thread

[reefermad619]

I got it all painted the other night, and this morning me and my buddy Josh got the background of the tank painted, put the rock in, got some sand in, and got water in. Tank will be a 200 gallon Coldwater Display tank at Saltwater FantaSeas in Portland Oregon.

F the rock! That tank is the BIZ! The beard is a close second.

 

[letimmons]

Yes you can remove it clean it and let it dry, my only concern is how do you intend to put the wall in your system if it's all ready full of water and running?

Yeah, i took them out and let them dry over night and then went ahead and did it.. Turned out very nice and the foam sticks to the rock no problem at all. I went and got that epoxy that everyone is using, the bob smith product and im not sure what im doing wrong but it sucks. How much do you have to put on? i put on a thick coat and the sand just fall right off of it. Think i will be going and getting some of that Bondo product.

 

[larrypoe]

soooooooooooooo cool.........this is exactly the alternative to tons of live rock I have been looking for.....not to mention opens a world of opertunitys in terms of tank decoration

I have som agrocrete sitting in SW curing for a tank I want to build (morder/agronite/crushed coral covering pvc pipe....but there are drawbacks to it as well..the biggest is it realy isnt any lighter (and in fact heavier at times) than LR.........price is right though

I think this stuff maybe the ultimate alternative though..not only is the price right, but the weight is far lighter as well.....not to mention downtime from construction to fish being added should be far less.

nice builds guys, and I hope to add a few pics myself in the weeks to come :bounce2:

btw..........i like the idea for purple (or any other color you want) to the epoxy floor paint........but does anybody have any idea what the tint is made of?? or if it has any effect on water quality (prob just being gun shy but it seems with this hobby...there is always an "omg no not that" )

 

[Poeticlydead]

Yeah, i took them out and let them dry over night and then went ahead and did it.. Turned out very nice and the foam sticks to the rock no problem at all. I went and got that epoxy that everyone is using, the bob smith product and im not sure what im doing wrong but it sucks. How much do you have to put on? i put on a thick coat and the sand just fall right off of it. Think i will be going and getting some of that Bondo product.

Did you get the epoxy finishing resin?
Did you mix it in the proper ratio?
You have to add the sand immediatly after doing a section - on a large piece you can't just coat the whole thing then add sand as it has a 20min set time
I used a single (say medium to heavy) coat and a fine sea floor grade sand and had excellant results.
This video shows the product I used and how it was used, as you can see it is fairly easy to get the sand to stay.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BqTEmM25XSM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Gooseman]

i am curious about this foam everyone is using ... is it a specific kind? or is it just the regular spray foam in a can you can buy at walmart for insulation? also what the results were and if it had any adverse affects on the fish, corals or inverts

 

[Bulldogsteve]

Make sure to use pond foam.
DO NOT USE GAP FILLER TYPE FOAM IT IS NOT UV SAFE.
I used great stuff pond foam.
Picked it up at ACE!
Steve

 

[letimmons]

Ok, so i will post some pictures later but im finally finished. I ran into the issue earlier with the Bob Smith epoxy and went out and used a bondo fiberglass type product instead. Well, that was dumb as it stunk Very Very bad and i tried to cure it in a heated room for several days. It was a little goopy in the spots i had put a second coat and remained soft. So, i scrapped all six pieces and went out to HD and got new supplies. This second round went much better. I went and brought two 9 oz kits of the Bob Smith epoxy (20 minute) and brought some smaller grain sand. I tried to push down the foam as much as i could, on one piece i did a little better then the others and its really flat and not buoyant at all. I did 2 coats of epoxy/sand and also did a small touch up on spots with super glue and sand. I let it sit for 24 hours and then put it all in a barrel to soak and hopefully finishing curing. I can smell the epoxy smell still from the barrel. How long does that smell like that?? Does it need to "air cure" longer before putting it in the water????

Did you get the epoxy finishing resin?
Did you mix it in the proper ratio?
You have to add the sand immediatly after doing a section - on a large piece you can't just coat the whole thing then add sand as it has a 20min set time
I used a single (say medium to heavy) coat and a fine sea floor grade sand and had excellant results.
This video shows the product I used and how it was used, as you can see it is fairly easy to get the sand to stay.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BqTEmM25XSM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[ReeferEric]

Great video, I was always skeptical about this. More so because of contamination due to the foam material. Maybe I'll give it a try in a nano... if I ever start one.

 

[jake koppen]

here is mine, have to link my flickr page cause i don't have the pics on this comp
i'm working on my new build. It's a 72 bow front drilled with the rock wall complete and shadow box mocked up. here are some pictures on my flickr account. i'm pretty excited on how it's coming along. take a look and let me know what you think!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59752155@N05/6683199171/

 

[jake koppen]

here is mine, have to link my flickr page cause i don't have the pics on this comp
i'm working on my new build. It's a 72 bow front drilled with the rock wall complete and shadow box mocked up. here are some pictures on my flickr account. i'm pretty excited on how it's coming along. take a look and let me know what you think!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59752155@N05/6683199171/

 

[yousmellsfishy]

Very nice. Is that a shadowbox in the background? :thumbsup:

 

[T Diddy]

Jake, that looks great! Nice work :thumbsup:

 

[jake koppen]

It is a shadow box in the background. It's just a mock up tho. I'm thinking of making a ship wreck off in the distance and using white christmas lights to light it. There are some that slowly twinkle and would make that shimmer effect even in the water in the distance. Cheap and easy!

 

[yousmellsfishy]

I would like to know how you built the shadowbox. I'm currently in the planning phase of something similar.

 

[jake koppen]

It's just mocked up now but I plan on making a box that will be a little more than a foot deep then but the background image in there in a semi circle (for my application as you look through the gap at any angle it will be like looking into the distance). Then put some rock our what ever shape you want and put the lighting between the background and shadow box rock. I'm going to cover the box so no light from the tank or room changes the look. There is a long thread about them and different ways of doing it.

 

[letimmons]

So here are some photos from my foam wall. I ended up doing this project twice since I ended up using fiberglass resin instead of the recommanded stuff. It ended up being awful and didn't dry and harden.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[gholtmeyer]

Ok, I made the rock/foam walls for my tank. After very careful measurements I made the walls. I used the yellow Great Stuff foam. I let that cure and then put one of the two part epoxies that was recommended on here and covered that in sand. Then I go to put the damn walls into the tank and they grew on me! It is about half an inch too tall. I can cut foam from the bottom. The bottom will be under 1.5 inches of sand.

The question is this: Do I need to epoxy the cut edges since it will be buried under sand? I was thinking that the UV is what caused the yellow Great Stuff to break down and hence the need to put the epoxy and sand over it.

 

[Bulldogsteve]

Allways better safe than sorry.
Might be best off covering it.
People here say the yellow foam is ok to use some say dont.
I heard alot of dont use the yellow foam so i spent the extra money and bought the pond foam uv safe stuff and sealed that also.
Steve

 

[AquaticEngineer]

The black pond/landscape foam is only like $4.50 a can or less, why would you use anything else?

Look for a brand called "Touch N' Foam". That was the best priced stuff I could find without buying it in wholesale quantities.

 

[letimmons]

The Touch N foam might be cheap in your area but that isnt true other places. In Oregon the cheapest i can find it for is $11 a can.... Amazon had it for around $9 a can with free shipping which is were i got the first batch of it. I wish i could have gotten it that cheap!!!!