Idea for background/cover

[BCOrchidGuy]

I've been thinking about an idea for a back ground for my new tank. I first thought of this a couple years ago and just kept it in the back of my mind but now that the tank is almost ready to be filled with water I'd like to get some feed back on my idea for a tank background.
I was thinking of either using silicone or epoxy and completely covering the back glass of the tank with very small reef rubble OR very course aragonite. I thought I could even put some larger pieces of rubble on there to make ledges etc...
What does everyone think, what would be your concerns?

Doug

[fishface]

hey Doug, i've heard of folks using that expanding foam to make some pretty cool backdrops. dunno if you've heard of or thought of that...one other thing to consider.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Never considered it but maybe I should. I was thinking of the background as a place to put frags or start colonies of say Xenia and or star polyps. I think it would look amazing if the back of the glass was covered top to bottom in stuff.

Doug

[G1GY]

I've heard of others actualy cracking the glass with epoxy.

If you just stick a frag of GSP on the glass with a suction cup, it'll grow there like mad. :)

I have it even growing over my heater. :eek:

[Snappy]

You can also glue some monti cap or other sps on the back wall.

[mark]

in this thread I queried about pond foam, there's also a link to the RC thread that got me wondering on the stuff
http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29215

[Moogled]

If you have the extra money to toss around, you can consider making a reef rock wall.

Ziptie small chunks of rock to light diffuser to create a dramatric background.

[muck]

Russ (rusty) is working on setting up his tank again after the move and built a rock wall out of aragacrete. It looks awesome! I'll make sure he posts pics of it. :mrgreen:

[kwirky]

cichlid-forum.com has some examples of some crazy backgrounds in their DIY section, have a look. will probably give some ideas.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Thanks for the ideas, Muck I tried the aragacrete route with my 155 gallon and I must have done something wrong, everything was to brittle to work with. I'd love to make it work as I'd like to make tables but unless someone local can show me what I did wrong I think I'll avoid it.
Moogled, thanks that's a good idea, that may be a better idea than the one I had. I could zip tie smaller bits of rock all over.
Kwirky thanks I'll be looking at that tomorrow.

Doug

[Beermaster]

Muck, tell Russ to post a picture, i would love to see it, i am just starting to get everything for the 90 going, and want to do somthing on the back wall

[danny zubot]

Here's a pic of my buddies 90 gallon with a foam wall. The possibilities are endless when using this stuff, you can make caves, integrate plumbing into the wall and paint it whatever color you want.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/508/1107foamrockwall.jpg

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/1107tankfrontnew.jpg

[Beermaster]

OH WOW :shocked:

That looks awsome, canprobaly make some cool as ledges with that, and hide some plumbing as well

[mark]

way better than the guy fr RC