New 29 Gallon Tank

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I will admit that this is a bit ambitious, but I want to try my hand at the spray foam backgrounds for my new 29 gallon tank.

So far, I've got the foam sprayed in and around a couple of clay pots.

Once its dry, I'll move on to painting the foam to look like rock.

 

[Autumncrossing]

Looks cool!

 

[sde]

Good luck!
I too am doing something similar to this, but it is still unpainted. If you want this to be a aquatic setup than you are going to need to seal it with water sealant. If this isn't going to be aquatic than I don't think you will need to seal it.

 

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I'm not sure what I am ultimately going to house in this tank, but I know it'll be aquatic. I have to pick up the sealant later this week.

My only problem right now is the fact that some of the foam apparently hasn't dried and is oozing from a hole repeatedly.

 

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My rock painting skills needs some work.

Once I seal it, its going to be a sand bottom and a lot of plants. I've got a bacopa that I'll be moving from my fire belly tank into this one to hopefully help the cycling along.

 

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I would tell you to go slow with the spray foam. I'm having a problem with stuff from the bottom expanding up and out of hole in the top. I think it's because I went back and filled in gaps beneath already hardened foam, so it can't dry like the rest.

 

[sde]

My only problem right now is the fact that some of the foam apparently hasn't dried and is oozing from a hole repeatedly.

I had this problem too, the foam was oozing through the holes in the bottom of the pots I put in the foam. But after a while it all dried. And I noticed that the stuff that oozed dried a more yellow color.

 

[Chinadog]

Once the foam 'rocks' get covered in algae and moss the painted finish won't really be visible. It's just a base colour to stop the bright coloured foam being obvious between the plants.
I looks like it will turn out very nice when its finished.

 

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I've sealed the paint with an aquarium-safe silicon. Now it just has to sit for two days for the silicon to cure.

 

[sde]

My rock painting skills needs some work.

Looks good to me!

What paint(s) did you use? I like the color.

 

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I used this thread as a guide: Caudate Bar

The paint is Liquitex BASIC line. Acryllic paints. All except for the green. The thread warned against greens because of copper content so I used food coloring to make my own.

 

[Tsunami]

Oh wow! I have never heard of doingna foam backround!
That looks awesome!

 

[sde]

I used this thread as a guide: Caudate Bar

The paint is Liquitex BASIC line. Acryllic paints. All except for the green. The thread warned against greens because of copper content so I used food coloring to make my own.

That is the same thread I used for reference. It also has a great guide to growing moss.

 

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I want to make this tank as heavily planted as I can. My current tank doesn't have any moss, but I definitely want to have it in this one. I'm just nervous about buying plants online since I've never done it before. I'm not sure which sources are reliable.

I've seen people suggest aquabid. Are there other sources that you've seen people use? I was hoping someone on here would post plant ads, but I haven't seen any.

 

[UglytheAxolotl]

It looks great! It would look even more realistic if you painted the pots too.

 

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Sealant has cured, sand has been washed, plants have been planted. Bacopa, Ancharis, and cyperus helferi. Still searching for java moss, and maybe water lettuce.

 

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On second looks, I've decided to take out the pebbles and smaller rocks. I don't like the look of them. I might find larger river rocks to replace them with.

I'm also struggling to be patient with this tank. I know it needs time to settle and cycle, but I also want to put something it in very badly. As my mother commented, it's a very pretty snail tank. (There are three snails hiding somewhere in there).

 

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I'm 80% satisfied with this tank. It's not quite where I want it to be. I've got some java moss coming in the mail, and I'm going to add that in. Hopefully, it takes off once planted.

 

[sde]

Looking good!
I noticed you raised the water level a bit, covering the small area of land on the back left corner. If you are going to house a semi aquatic species or a species that needs some islands I think that little area would work great as one - and look really cool I think. Just a suggestion

 

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I have a floating dock coming in the mail, so I decided to completely cover the rock. The more I looked at the water level, the more I felt I was wasting volume.