Do It Yourself DIY Background out of styrofoam and cement?

i haven't done one of these myself (yet), but i know that your not going to be able to do it with water/fish in the tank. all of them that i've seen had to be afixed to the back glass with silicone otherwise it would just try to float when water was added.

 

I've seen foam like 3-d ones at the petstore for the smaller tanks (not diy) and I think even they need to be affixed to the back of the tank!

 

I wish I could make this (no patience though) lol!
Ps. Google DIY AQUARIUM BACKGROUND into YouTube and you should find plenty of great ideas and how to's

 

The water does not hold the benifical bacteria keeping the tank from cycling again... that would be the filter for the most part. The substrate has the BB in it too but not as much... you would move the filter from the tank you want to work on to the smaller tank and let it run there.

Moving the fish if the water parameters are the same (temp and all) should not cause too much stress on them.

I do this often with my Discus when I need to with no ill effects on the fish. Just a nice short acclimation period they will need to adjust to any differences in the water (I keep my discus in a bucket with a few inches of water in it and then pour water into the bucket from the tank they will be going into until the bucket is full, net them out and place them in the new tank)

It wont hurt the fish at all for a few days... stay on top of waterchanges on the smaller tank if you were to do this (25-40% every 2-3 days) and you COULD hold them in it for up to a week if you need to so you dont rush the project.

 

you need to figure out filtration and incorporate that into the background, like HOB intakes and the canister ones are wide for the most part.

what size smaller tank? or how much smaller then their normal tank?

 

verry cool

 

Wow Dawn. Nice one. I might actually do that o.o; I could make so many things like that too! *ideas, ideas.* I might actually have a plan for the 50 now, and even better, a way to hide the heater and the filter tubes!

 

tall plants hide heaters quite well...filter tubes you can zip tie manzanita or similar too to hide them or even plastic plants.

There's tons of things you can do with the styrofoam if done properly (I've seen ones done that look like tree roots going into the tank and branching out across the bottom).

 

I'm experimenting with a styrofoam background now. I'm trying to put in columes in the design like an ancient greek ruin. Just in planning stage so nothing to take a photo of yet. I collect any styroam I get my hands on from big chunks of 6"x 10" down to very thin 1/8". I have a large yard trash bag full at the moment, so I thought I'd try something with it. We'll see.