Easy and inexpensive Rock Background

Found this on You Tube. This is cool !
Planning on giving this one a shot this weekend. . . .this would go great with the Artificial Rocks Thread TripleMoonsErotic posted.

[yt]5Ng6GeF9mA[/yt]

Originally Posted by Spurticus

Found this on You Tube. This is cool !
Planning on giving this one a shot this weekend. . . .this would go great with the Artificial Rocks Thread TripleMoonsErotic posted.

[yt]5Ng6GeF9mA[/yt]

Oops. . . .lets just try the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Ng6GeF9mA

That would be TripleMoonsExotic

I gotta get some sleep

I think that's great for using in a fish tank, but for an open air viv, you don't need to use concrete. Heck, I didn't use it for my tank at all. I used the same type of pink insulation, but a thicker piece. I carved it out with grooves and crevices to make it look "rock like." Then I used a heat gun on it. This helps to melt it down a bit and give it a more "natural" look. After that I spray painted it with krylon paint. I sealed it with silicone, but I don't think I'd bother if used in a viv. I'd simply seal it with a polyurethane sealer and let it cure from there. It's really very simple, especially if you're not attempting to make it marine safe.

I was kind of wondering about this myself. If you use silicone to stick your background to the tank wouldn't all the rocks towards the bottom be a pain to clean? Would it be better to just leave it in as a tight fit or maybe use something like Velcro to keep it tight but still removable? I'm a noob here, sorry if im saying silly things.

Personally, I don't think that's a silly question at all. I don't know that I'd necessarily want it "removable" because if it's not so tight that you can remove it, you risk the snake finding a way behind it and possibly getting trapped. Also, removing a piece of foam board like that would be difficult as it can get crumbly. Velcro or an adhesive spray would make it less permanent, but I think for general cleaning, you'd want to just be able to wipe it down, which is why I suggested polyurethane. That way you could spray your chlorhex or bleach or whatever you used for cleaning on it and it wouldn't harm it.

Again, this is just my 2 cents. My viv background is completely siliconed to the back because it was previously used under water. There's no way I could get that thing out without a ton of work, and I'd definitely ruin the piece in the process.

Originally Posted by Spurticus

TripleMoonsErotic

Whoooooooooa! I already have people think TripleMoonsExotic.com is a dirty site because of the "exotic"...Now what are people going to think?

Originally Posted by TripleMoonsExotic

Whoooooooooa! I already have people think TripleMoonsExotic.com is a dirty site because of the "exotic"...Now what are people going to think?

I knew as soon as I hit the submit button I'd screwed that one up . . .but couldn't take it back.
Funny . . . I'm a moderator on a Gamecock Website that uses a VBulletin board just like this. . . .I make a lot of mistakes, but being a mod, I have Editing capabilities and can go back and edit out those little slip ups. I made that mistake and was clicking like hell at the bottom right hand screen to go into the Edit mode . . ..But I Couldn't Take it Back !!!!!!!



Sorry about that

Originally Posted by Limejoker224

I was kind of wondering about this myself. If you use silicone to stick your background to the tank wouldn't all the rocks towards the bottom be a pain to clean? Would it be better to just leave it in as a tight fit or maybe use something like Velcro to keep it tight but still removable? I'm a noob here, sorry if im saying silly things.

I'm going to do this this weekend just to see how it turns out. . . . I'm not going to seal the background to the tank permanently. If it's not a tight enough fit to stand alone, I'm going to use some tape or clips at the top to hold it in. . . . . . . and instead of doing the "Fill and Drain" I was just going to do a couple of rinses outside and let it sit a dry several hours between showers to make sure the silt is cleaned away.

My tank is set up with just a tree and a small artificial log and some rocks. I like the Desert type set up, with not vines or leaves. I like the Rock background and I'm planning on doing some of the fake rocks that TripleMoons had in that thread as well.

Originally Posted by Spurticus

I'm going to do this this weekend just to see how it turns out. . . . I'm not going to seal the background to the tank permanently. If it's not a tight enough fit to stand alone, I'm going to use some tape or clips at the top to hold it in. . . . . . . and instead of doing the "Fill and Drain" I was just going to do a couple of rinses outside and let it sit a dry several hours between showers to make sure the silt is cleaned away.

My tank is set up with just a tree and a small artificial log and some rocks. I like the Desert type set up, with not vines or leaves. I like the Rock background and I'm planning on doing some of the fake rocks that TripleMoons had in that thread as well.

I don't think you need to drain it as much as they do. They're making that background for a fish tank so they want to lower the PH and rinse off any extra chemicals.