The Puffer Forum

I am planning on making a 3D background for my newly acquired 150 gallon aquarium. My baby fahaka puffer is in a 75, and before I move it I would like to make a 3D background. Before I make a huge mistake I figured I would ask my fellow hobbyist. Here is the plan:
1. Cut egg crate into 3 pieces that will be able to fit into the tank and cover most of the background.
2. Find 2 large pieces of drift wood roots (I live on KY Lake) and zip tie them to the egg crate.
3. build a temporary perimeter around the egg crate in order to prevent the concrete from going out the sids when added.
4. add quickcrete (mixed with natural sand from the lake) to the egg crate (drift wood already zip tied).
5. While the concrete is still wet, add small rocks all over the top of the concrete.
6. Allow to slowly dry over 3 days in a dark room.
7. Cure with salt water for 3 days, then place in horse trough full of water and replace water every day until pH is stable.

I figure once I have the cured background pieces, the sheer weight of the pieces will keep the drift wood sunk under the water (as most know its a pain trying to keep drift wood sunk.
I also figured I could simply place the 3 pieces upright in the back of the tank. I then would add my gravel substrate and place several LARGE rocks up against the background to prevent it from falling foward.

Please let me know if you think this would work, or if there are any serious problems? I will not be offended if this is a stupid idea, I like constructive criticism!

not sure about the quickcrete/concrete
welcome to the forum

eieio, thanks for the reply.

Do you think the quickcrete a bad idea because it will be impossible to cure or because it wont support all of the small (3"-4") rocks?

Sound like a lot of work! Idk.. To me, I can only say you really have to think thru how u want the design to be. Right now I can only imagine the small pebbles scattered against the grey concrete.. And that's on the background.. Over the time, they may start to fall off...

I would seriously doubt the total curing of concrete in 3 days. Fresh concrete can totally hose the water chemistry in a tank. Are you sure that is safe?

Use styrofoam for the main background. If you wish to attach stones you need to hollow out the styrofoam and stick on the stones with milliput.

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure how long it will take for it to be safe, so I guess I'm not sure it is safe. I have read on a bunch of websites however that say, once properly cured concrete is safe. The styrofoam route sounds cool, but the main purpose of basically making the concrete slabs was so I could anchor down a LARGE drift wood tree root into the background. I basically wanted the aquarium to look like it was right a the base of a huge submerged tree. I'm second doubting my plan however. Thanks for the help. I guess I might try to simply make a large L shape out of plexiglass and then zip tie the tree root to that. The bottom of the L would be on the bottom of the tank, so maybe the substrate and some large rocks would be enough to keep the tree root down. This sounds easier I guess.

In theory it sounds like a good plan.

How about smaller removable sections - thinking the whole thing will end up being one giant crap magnet making cleaning it in situ a horrific experience

Possibly drill the tank to add some type of clip-on fittings enabling you to have anchor points and easy removal for cleaning, or is there some aquarium safe silicone adhesive to stick the clip-on fittings rather than drill it - just thinking out loud

Or magnets? some glued under the tank, some fitted to the driftwood