My DIY Background and Moonlighting

KawaiiBoy · 02-09-2008, 07:46 PM

Decided to share my experience in DIYing aquarium background after seeing that there is quite some interest in it in bro gtohow's thread. This is the final result. Hope more bros will find it useful and indulge in their own background making!

Materials needed are:

- Styrofoam boards (depends on how thick you need)
- Sharp pen knife
- Cement and mix
- Silicon (Most silicon can be used)

The boards are cut up and placed in position.

koolman · 02-09-2008, 07:51 PM

Looks very natural... Hmm.. AF seems to have alot of hidden dragon and crouching tiger..

Cheers
Koolman

KawaiiBoy · 02-09-2008, 08:02 PM

The boards are stacked together to make thicker dimensions. Generous amount of silicon are to be used. After which, pressure is to be applied so that the bonds are strong enough.

You can start carving your background after leaving the silicon dry for 24 hours.

My tank is with bracing so I have to break the background into smaller pieces. The pieces are painted with cement.

Note this space behind the background. It is for the powerhead to be placed in so that it can be hidden from sight.

02-09-2008, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by koolman

Looks very natural... Hmm.. AF seems to have alot of hidden dragon and crouching tiger..

Cheers
Koolman

n he's one of them! Great job bro KawaiiBoy

KawaiiBoy · 02-09-2008, 08:08 PM

You can see that for my background, all the air tubings and water pipes are integrated with the background and hidden from sight.

The last photo shows the tank with cold cathode moonlighting that I DIYed. It can be attached to a timer to be switched on at specific timing.

The water is a little greenish because of some medicine applied to the water. Hope you all will find my thread useful. Thanks for looking!

smalllfish · 02-09-2008, 08:10 PM

nice lah bro, u can collaborate with tank makers and taylor backdrops for new tanks.

getcarter · 02-09-2008, 08:14 PM

tks for sharing bro,great work,looks very real

KawaiiBoy · 02-09-2008, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by koolman

Looks very natural... Hmm.. AF seems to have alot of hidden dragon and crouching tiger..

Cheers
Koolman

Quote:

Originally Posted by YiDaLi

n he's one of them! Great job bro KawaiiBoy

Quote:

Originally Posted by smalllfish

nice lah bro, u can collaborate with tank makers and taylor backdrops for new tanks.

Thanks guys for the compliments. I did refer to some of the works of other people in the Internet, so its not really something original. You guys can do a search on it too!

02-09-2008, 08:28 PM

Great step by step detailing the DIY works bro, thanks for sharing.

Martin · 02-09-2008, 09:31 PM

very well done, thumbs up

02-09-2008, 07:46 PM	#1
KawaiiBoy Dragon Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 513	My DIY Background and Moonlighting Decided to share my experience in DIYing aquarium background after seeing that there is quite some interest in it in bro gtohow's thread. This is the final result. Hope more bros will find it useful and indulge in their own background making! Materials needed are: - Styrofoam boards (depends on how thick you need) - Sharp pen knife - Cement and mix - Silicon (Most silicon can be used) The boards are cut up and placed in position.

02-09-2008, 07:51 PM	#2
koolman Dragon Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 942	Looks very natural... Hmm.. AF seems to have alot of hidden dragon and crouching tiger.. Cheers Koolman

02-09-2008, 08:02 PM	#3
KawaiiBoy Dragon Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 513	The boards are stacked together to make thicker dimensions. Generous amount of silicon are to be used. After which, pressure is to be applied so that the bonds are strong enough. You can start carving your background after leaving the silicon dry for 24 hours. My tank is with bracing so I have to break the background into smaller pieces. The pieces are painted with cement. Note this space behind the background. It is for the powerhead to be placed in so that it can be hidden from sight.

02-09-2008, 08:08 PM	#5
KawaiiBoy Dragon Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 513	You can see that for my background, all the air tubings and water pipes are integrated with the background and hidden from sight. The last photo shows the tank with cold cathode moonlighting that I DIYed. It can be attached to a timer to be switched on at specific timing. The water is a little greenish because of some medicine applied to the water. Hope you all will find my thread useful. Thanks for looking!

02-09-2008, 08:10 PM	#6
smalllfish Dragon Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 1,418	nice lah bro, u can collaborate with tank makers and taylor backdrops for new tanks.

02-09-2008, 08:14 PM	#7
getcarter Dragon Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 718	tks for sharing bro,great work,looks very real

02-09-2008, 08:28 PM	#9
BuWaC Guest Posts: n/a	Great step by step detailing the DIY works bro, thanks for sharing.

02-09-2008, 09:31 PM	#10
Martin KKJ Inspector Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 4,340	very well done, thumbs up

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