Pond foam

[Sherita]

Does anyone know if pond foam (the black kind) will stick to acrylic reliably?

[koa25]

Rob might know. i know he has used it in a many of his builds.

[Sherita]

Thanks Mike, I'll shoot him a pm.

[FireWater]

I did not have luck with new shiny acrylic Sherita. The only time I got it to stick to acrylic was when I roughed up the acrylic. It needs something to stick to.

[RayAllen]

You could silicone eggcrate into place as a structure then spray the foam on it. That is the way it is usually done. As John mentioned the foam has to have something to grab onto. With the eggcrate that allows you to also make cool structures.

[Sherita]

I'm trying to avoid very much depth with this. The tank in question is very, very narrow from front to back, so I need a pretty thin background. But the acrylic is a hideous blue, so it MUST have some kind of background. Ugly, ugly, ugly blue. The tank is also fairly small as far as volume, so I'm wanting to not lose anymore volume than I have to. I can rough the acrylic, that's not a problem, because I would NEVER EVER use this tank without a background. Did I mention that it's ugly blue?

[txav8r]

Ray is on the right track. I would use weld-on to adhere egg crate to the back then foam it.

[RayAllen]

with egg-crate you would not loose much space. 1/2" maybe a little more and you will know for sure that they foam is not going anywhere. Once the foam has dried you can then put a bead of silicone on the edges of the foam. Gives it a much cleaner look and seals it in tight.

[Mr Cob]

I did this on the biocube. I wanted the black plastic wall to be blue so I used clear waterproof silicone (aquarium sealant works too) to attach a blue acrylic piece to the back wall. I then used the silicone on the blue acrylic and applied the foam over it.

Just need to make sure the foam is applied over the silicone while the silicone is still wet.

I do not use foam without silicone even on glass. The foam will begin to peal after a year on glass and within a few months if on acrylic if silicone is not used.



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[Mr Cob]

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7264/7877247288_6d95de1d4a_c.jpg


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8282/7877235784_d122d09c6c_c.jpg

[Mr Cob]

Also.. using foam on glass is not a premanent option. It is kind of permanent on acrylic in that you cannot scrape it off without scratching the heck out of the acrylic.

When I sold my old 85g the new owner pealed all of my beautiful work off lol.

[koa25]

That turned out horrible, Rob. Just Horrible. Figured i'd let you down easy before everyone else chimmed in. ha ha. Lesson learned. Rob has skills.

[Mr Cob]

here is from the other side... you can see the acrylic piece I used is super thin and did not take from the depth of the tank...


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7132/7877239034_c0549e2e87_c.jpg

[Mr Cob]

another note...don't let the foam bubble up otherwise you get poop looking foam walls. Poke it when it bubbles up and move the foam around with a stick and I promise it will look more realistic when it dries..sprinkle some aragonite on it while still wet to really give it the rock texture.

DO let it bubble up if you want to be able to mount frag plugs to it easily. I did that in a few areas on the bottom.