Home made background a step-by-step approach

[Dieselpower]

Wickes stock it instore. Its under construction insulation polystyrene sheeting and comes in 2400 x 600 x10/15/20/25/50 mm and 2400 x 1200 x 10/15/20/25/50 sizes ranging from £3.50 - £20

[Graham]

Has anyone tried using polyurethane insulation boards rather than Styrofoam / polystyrene for this sort of project. I've got a few left over from insulating my tanks in my back porch AKA fish-room and plan to give them a try. They came in 60cm x 120cm x 5cm "boards" and seem ideal in that they would be less messy (if not a little bit tougher) to carve, and polyurethane should be safe as polyurethane based sealers (e.g. G4) are used to seal pond / backgrounds in any case, although I'll allow for the fact that they could incorporate fire-retardants and seal anyway.

[Coln]

I have used that kind of insulation and it's really good for shaping and is okay
with tile cement adhering to it but some are like corks in the water try it
under water before you do any work on it, col

[woody]

that is brilliant , wish i had seen this before i got my juwel rockwall j

[theSwede]

Just one word comes to mind. STUNNING!. Very nicely done background.

[vinboy]

Thats a great background
But am a fan of real rock and a tank can be done in a day i know you lose more water than
using a light background.
vinny

[mikeyb]

looks awesome mate looks basically the same as wat they do in that warhammer shop down the road to me il have to face the geek army and find out wat paint they use as if kids are using it i cant see it being toxic. Im not too sure on the toxic chemicals bit there must be stuff we can use that isnt toxic im ringing newquay aquarium up on tuesday to find out what they use when i come to doing this myself from wat i can remember they basically have a board then chicken wire suff if built up onto it. then they use like a non toxic concrete stuff is pushed through it i remember seeing plymouth aquarium being built and thats all marine so its gotta be worth a look into never know they may even let me buy some bits off them i imagine it weighs alot more than this way though

[bungy]

Most DIY places sell it as Polystyrene in the UK - I think Styrofoam is a US thing...
I recently bought some from Wickes at £6 per sheet - 8x2x2 (just the right size for my new Malawi tank) - I also bought their Quickcrete concrete which did the job perfectly. For the colour I used concrete colour powder from Days builders - Buff and Brown but other colours are available. I sealed with V8 pond sealer. The result was stunning so give it a go its not that hard.
I will be posting my efforts on here after the tank is up and running including the cabinet build, tank drilling and DIY background construction.

Great effort here though, a very very realistic background.

Bungy

[mikeyb]

just to add to this if u substitute epoxia for the resin they use on surfboards is polyester based and not toxic and also if u add sand into the resin coat ul get a better effect just some pointers and u can get styrene from any art shop

[ilesey]

Excellent! looks so good!
When I get my new tank I want something on the back and I'm thinking this is just the job!
I keep looking at the stuff the shop sells which is nice but to design my own and be original is to me much better.
I will be back!

Andy.