DIY Faux Rock Background

[MrBonekeeper]

New guy here. Took a look around and was blown away by all the great resources and thought I'd throw in my two cents here on constructing backgrounds. I just completed a background for my 125 gallon tank. It's constructed out of polystyrene board, cement, paint, and marine epoxy.

http://www.littleboxofbones.com/tank_rebuild2.html

Here's a picture of the complete thing. The water is a little foggy in the picture cause I took it shortly after putting the critters back in.

It definitely needs some plant life but I'm working at it. My next project is to make a real canopy to increase the amount of light. Any good DIY light canopies out there you guys can suggest?

 

[BillyZ]

Welcome to AquariumAdvice.com BoneKeeper

I love the look. Did you age the materials in the tank at all?

A friend of mine has a turtle in a 55 and the poor thing is in desperate need of some real sceneray. I have finaly convinced my friend to let me help him with doing something like this. I will defintely use your's and paul's site as references (already knew about pauls)

any suggestions or warnings?

 

[MrBonekeeper]

I kept as much of my original water as possible and took a piece sponge directly from my fluval 3 plus and put it into the new DIY filter box. I ran the pump and the thermostat for a full 24 hours, then tested the water. The water temp was a steady 76 and the PH was 7.2 and pretty much stays there altough I would like to lower it some. All in all, it was really pretty easy. I'll post some more pictures as soon as my wife gets back into town with my digicam.

 

[oscarbreeder]

Man that looks AWSOME!!!!
Nice job.

 

[BillyZ]

BoneKeeper: Just hoping for an update. Have you noticed any spikes in your Ph? other water quality parameters staying stable? Theres a few folks in other threads discussing doing what you did and I was hoping we can hear how things are going with your tank now that this has been in the water for a little while now.

Thanks!!

 

[swanandmokashi]

awesome job!