Drilled 7g aquatop nano sky diy foam wall

[npc snail]

Hey everyone! I'm new around here, but not to saltwater. Ive had a few nano tanks in the past but unfortunately I didn't document them.
Oh well they weren't much to look at anyway. My goal with this tank is a somewhat low tech, peaceful mixed reef with a few fish and inverts.
To start off I used a 7g aqua top nano sky rimless low iron glass tank and drilled it for a 5 gallon sump. No overflow box just a piece of pvc elbow
with a grill on it for the drain. I decided to try and do a foam back wall because I really like the look of these once they grow in, What a mess that was...

Dry after finishing foam wall.

Back of stand and 5g sump.

Front view with temporary light on

And finally full of water!

The initial build was completed Jan 2020 so looking forward to posting an update of what it looks like now.

 

[Nigel35]

Looks great! keep up the good work!

 

[npc snail]

and a more recent FTS

 

[ScubaEthan]

Wow that's super nice! I like the wall look, but not how most people execute it. This, however, really takes it up a notch and looks amazing. You're giving me ideas for a new tank!

What kind of foam did you use? Did you take any photos of the process of making the wall before inserting it?

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Hey everyone! I'm new around here, but not to saltwater. Ive had a few nano tanks in the past but unfortunately I didn't document them.
Oh well they weren't much to look at anyway. My goal with this tank is a somewhat low tech, peaceful mixed reef with a few fish and inverts.
To start off I used a 7g aqua top nano sky rimless low iron glass tank and drilled it for a 5 gallon sump. No overflow box just a piece of pvc elbow
with a grill on it for the drain. I decided to try and do a foam back wall because I really like the look of these once they grow in, What a mess that was...

Dry after finishing foam wall.

Back of stand and 5g sump.

Front view with temporary light on

And finally full of water!

The initial build was completed Jan 2020 so looking forward to posting an update of what it looks like now.

Super nice.

 

[npc snail]

Wow that's super nice! I like the wall look, but not how most people execute it. This, however, really takes it up a notch and looks amazing. You're giving me ideas for a new tank!

What kind of foam did you use? Did you take any photos of the process of making the wall before inserting it?

Hey thanks!

Its a black pond foam I ordered from Ebay supposed to be aquarium safe.
And no unfortunately I didn't take pics of the foam wall build, Basically though it has an egg crate
skeleton with the rocks zip-tied into it with foam holding everything together. Then I just carved the
foam to look more realistic and coated it with clear epoxy then sprinkled it with sand and crushed coral to hide everything.

 

[ScubaEthan]

That's cool! So is the egg crate space behind the foam airtight to not get detritus build up? Or is it all wet back there and you'll get flow to move behind it? I'm just trying to fully wrap my brain around this idea and curious how you executed it