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OP
TikiBird
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Tiki head ornament and home to my condy.
This is so cool!! Looks great
Anyone decorate their tank with ornaments?
- Thread starter TikiBird
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This is so cool!! Looks great
Thank you. I'm also afraid to try the pond foam, although many people swear by it being safe. My concern with it is that it will be porous enough to allow saltwater to saturate it over time and the associated problems with that. Also, with so much fill to do, I'm afraid the ornaments will float with the foam filling. I'm still trying to decide between that and using aquarium safe caulk, but I know that will not completely seal and will separate from the edges over time in the saltwater and will be quite heavy. I was hoping there was maybe another option I wasn't considering. I'll let you know how things go. Thank you again for the suggestion.
UPDATE:
I got this Great Stuff pond foam from Amazon. Says it's fish safe right on the can (once fully cured), which gave me some comfort to try it for the reef aquarium. So, I went for it. Filled all of the hollow space in my columns very easily. I really liked how it expanded to fill in spaces that I couldn't easily get to, both while spraying it in and while curing. It's still curing now, so I'll have to provide an update on it once I get it all trimmed and get the columns back in the tank. One thing I would say for now is to make sure you wear disposable gloves when using this stuff, it was really nice to just peel off all the mess by just removing my neoprene gloves. Also, be careful not to get any of this stuff on the side of the decorations that you want to be seen in the tank, it is black in color and quite sticky very soon after spraying it in. Until next time...
I got this Great Stuff pond foam from Amazon. Says it's fish safe right on the can (once fully cured), which gave me some comfort to try it for the reef aquarium. So, I went for it. Filled all of the hollow space in my columns very easily. I really liked how it expanded to fill in spaces that I couldn't easily get to, both while spraying it in and while curing. It's still curing now, so I'll have to provide an update on it once I get it all trimmed and get the columns back in the tank. One thing I would say for now is to make sure you wear disposable gloves when using this stuff, it was really nice to just peel off all the mess by just removing my neoprene gloves. Also, be careful not to get any of this stuff on the side of the decorations that you want to be seen in the tank, it is black in color and quite sticky very soon after spraying it in. Until next time...
OP
OP
TikiBird
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
UPDATE:
I got this Great Stuff pond foam from Amazon. Says it's fish safe right on the can (once fully cured), which gave me some comfort to try it for the reef aquarium. So, I went for it. Filled all of the hollow space in my columns very easily. I really liked how it expanded to fill in spaces that I couldn't easily get to, both while spraying it in and while curing. It's still curing now, so I'll have to provide an update on it once I get it all trimmed and get the columns back in the tank. One thing I would say for now is to make sure you wear disposable gloves when using this stuff, it was really nice to just peel off all the mess by just removing my neoprene gloves. Also, be careful not to get any of this stuff on the side of the decorations that you want to be seen in the tank, it is black in color and quite sticky very soon after spraying it in. Until next time...
This is great info. Thanks! I will be interested in a future update!
Here is the update, sorry for the delay, but just got to the final step last night.
Not to hold you in suspense, it was unfortunately an epic fail.
After full expansion, the foam was coming out of every hole and well past the bottom of the columns.
So, I had to cut the foam back, which exposed a lot of the air pockets which had formed.
In order to fill the air pockets, I used some aquarium silicone caulk to fill the voids and seal the bottom.
Seems the caulk interacted with the foam while it was setting up and caused some of the foam to contract, which led to a depression.
No, problem with that, I just let the caulk set before adding more caulk to fill the void.
After waiting for the caulk to fully set, I finally tried to put the columns back in the tank.
This is where the epic fail occurred as one of my initial fears was realized when the columns floated.
Even placing live rock on top of the columns, which I was hoping would hold down the columns, they still floated up.
Bottom line, this foam may be good for other things, but this is not one of them.
I should have stuck with my original idea which was to use a combination of silicone caulk and aquarium gravel to fill the voids.
I'm not sure when, or if, I will bother to try to do that, since the family seems to like the less cluttered look of the tank without the columns.
When I'm ready for a change again, I'll take on trying to get most of that foam out and start over.
Not to hold you in suspense, it was unfortunately an epic fail.
After full expansion, the foam was coming out of every hole and well past the bottom of the columns.
So, I had to cut the foam back, which exposed a lot of the air pockets which had formed.
In order to fill the air pockets, I used some aquarium silicone caulk to fill the voids and seal the bottom.
Seems the caulk interacted with the foam while it was setting up and caused some of the foam to contract, which led to a depression.
No, problem with that, I just let the caulk set before adding more caulk to fill the void.
After waiting for the caulk to fully set, I finally tried to put the columns back in the tank.
This is where the epic fail occurred as one of my initial fears was realized when the columns floated.
Even placing live rock on top of the columns, which I was hoping would hold down the columns, they still floated up.
Bottom line, this foam may be good for other things, but this is not one of them.
I should have stuck with my original idea which was to use a combination of silicone caulk and aquarium gravel to fill the voids.
I'm not sure when, or if, I will bother to try to do that, since the family seems to like the less cluttered look of the tank without the columns.
When I'm ready for a change again, I'll take on trying to get most of that foam out and start over.
tdileo
Valuable Member
Not sure what went wrong. I use a combo of Great Stuff and Silicone (aquarium safe, 100% silicone) on terrariums all the time for backgrounds. Spray great stuff on the back wall, let it dry, take a big knife and cut it to shape, then put cover it in silicone and dump coco fiber onto it and let it dry for two days. Makes a natural looking background and I've never seen the two react before
The reaction was not really the problem. It was minimal and was easily corrected with additional fill using more silicone.
The real problem was the floating issue that I could not overcome with adding rock on top of the columns.
If you have a fixture, like a background, that is held in place in some way, or has enough weight added to overcome the buoyancy of the foam, then this may also not be a problem in those cases.
The real problem was the floating issue that I could not overcome with adding rock on top of the columns.
If you have a fixture, like a background, that is held in place in some way, or has enough weight added to overcome the buoyancy of the foam, then this may also not be a problem in those cases.
themcnertney
Valuable Member
I recently seen on the Interweb, coral frags in small ceramic flower pots. Looked cool.
OP
OP
TikiBird
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Oh man! What an ordeal!! Well, thanks for being the guinea pig! [emoji23] Really though, you have saved me what sounds like a whole lot of frustration.
OP
OP
TikiBird
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Haha! Ah thank you @Katrina71! Lol I have thought of exactly nothing (although I was trying to!). I did see a little ceramic Christmas tree and wondered if I could put it in my freshwater tank [emoji23] Maybe some underwater LED lights? Idk
You? Any ideas I could steal?
OP
OP
TikiBird
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You go first and show me some pics of how it looks! lol
OP
OP
TikiBird
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[emoji23]
You know, I’m wondering if I can make my own Christmas tree-shaped tank thing by cutting up old plastic plants I’ve got sitting around and making them into a tree shape. I would just need something to glue them to so they make the shape. HMMMMM going to have to poke around tomorrow.
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