HUGE Background and Waterfall How To Guide...(pic heavy!)

[J-A-X]

Double check on the tub but from memory it's 4 - 5 layers and I'll check the tub shortly and let you know

 

[briiiziii]

Do you think its safe to start grouting now over the liquid nails?
Its been about 45 hours?

 

[ericrs]

that should be fine. liquid nails is normally 24 hour set time so thats playing it safe well and truely.
it will continue to harden regardless to if its covered up or not. it does not require air to dry.

 

[briiiziii]

Ahhhhhh ok thats great thanks! I was just worried if it needed to air dry but all is good! Hopefully I'll have a grouted waterfall and background by the end of today!

I was thinking 3 coats of grout does that seem ok? I just dont want to put to much on that I loose detail!

 

[mudgudgeon]

Looking good, you seem to be very thorough with planning and checking it for fit :lol: it should pay off though, it's looking great.

very inspirational, it makes me want to get stuck into making another enclosure, I know what I want to do, just got to collect some more materials

 

[briiiziii]

If anyone needs any styrofoam, I'm not going to be using the spare stuff i have! Theres enough to make probably 2 backgrounds! Theres a bit of sheeting too!

Looking good, you seem to be very thorough with planning and checking it for fit :lol: it should pay off though, it's looking great.

very inspirational, it makes me want to get stuck into making another enclosure, I know what I want to do, just got to collect some more materials

thank-you! i didnt want to make any mistakes and then have to tear it apart or start again so i was pretty thorough the whole way through

 

[starr9]

Any pics of the finished product please?!?!?!?! Looks amazing!!!! Im going to start with a hide and work my way up to something like this!!! Thank you for all the info!! it has helped me a lot!!!

 

[briiiziii]

I've done 2 layers of grout and all the chunky areas are looking really good and sturdy but all the flat areas still feel a bit flimsy, as if you could easily push the grout and styrofoam inwards if you bumped it! haha so a couple more layers on those areas i think!
I can imagine that this project is going to take me forever to finish! As I not only need to finish the grouting process but once the grout has been finished on the waterfall i need to pondtite it and test it with water to check for the waterline, make sure it has no leaks and to draw in a rough guide as to where the waterline will sit so that i can paint it too look like the water is a beautiful blue colour

I also want to put a couple of small fish in the pond of my waterfall.
What does everyone think about this?
I want them to be really nice and bright if possible but only about 3-5 cm in length, and of course fresh water.
Let me know if you have any suggestions!

 

[thomasssss]

you should be able to get a blue coloured pondtite that gives it that really good blue shine in the water cant wait to see the finished product

 

[viciousred]

Mollies or mini mollies or guppies all fine in warm or cold water and come in awesome colours

 

[Just_Plain_Nuts]

any new pics??? How is it going?

 

[mudgudgeon]

Mollies or mini mollies or guppies all fine in warm or cold water and come in awesome colours

X2 both would be fine in cold water, guppies can be very colourful.

 

[kr0nick]

I've done 2 layers of grout and all the chunky areas are looking really good and sturdy but all the flat areas still feel a bit flimsy, as if you could easily push the grout and styrofoam inwards if you bumped it! haha so a couple more layers on those areas i think!
I can imagine that this project is going to take me forever to finish! As I not only need to finish the grouting process but once the grout has been finished on the waterfall i need to pondtite it and test it with water to check for the waterline, make sure it has no leaks and to draw in a rough guide as to where the waterline will sit so that i can paint it too look like the water is a beautiful blue colour

I also want to put a couple of small fish in the pond of my waterfall.
What does everyone think about this?
I want them to be really nice and bright if possible but only about 3-5 cm in length, and of course fresh water.
Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Hey another thing you could use is acrylic render, alot tougher then grout but you get that shine off of it.

 

[briiiziii]

Sorry haha, I meant acrylic render. I thought it would be tough but its still a bit soft on the flat areas. Which kind of annoys me because the flat areas are flat for a reason haha and I want them to stay that way!

Does anyone know if pondite has any kind of hard finish to it. Is it strong/ durable/ not squishable haha
if that makes sense!

I think I might get some guppies for the pond. The brightest guppies there are

 

[J-A-X]

Pondtite is a sealer not a strengthener, the only way to get strength is to add more layers, I'd say 4 minimum. Each layer should be a thicker consistency than the last. The good thing with the render Is that you can keep it flat if you choose, apparently adding one or two drops to the final layer will allow you to screed it flat- lay the tank/ background on the floor so you are working horizontally, use something the width of the area and work it 'jiggle' it left and right a little bit as you pull it slowly towards you- we've all seen converters do it but I'm not sure I've explained it too well
I'm not sure were the other poster gets the ideas that acrylic render dries to a shine- its never happened to me,

So have you got any progress pics?

 

[kr0nick]

you could also add a glue that dries fairly hard i used pva on mine, It made a difference but not as much as i would have liked
v

 

[J-A-X]

Glue won't set as hard as the render, it's normally only added to help each layer bond to the previous layer, maybe that's what gave you the shine on your render? I use less glue as the layers progress

 

[briiiziii]

OK great
I thought that pondite wouldn't strengthen it at all but I guess i was just hoping it would haha!
It has 3 coats of acrylic render on it now. The bulky parts are really quite rendered up and very strong but as I said, the flat areas are still fairly "push-in-able"!
I think it's a shame that I have to do another couple layers on the flat bits, as I will be loosing a bit of detail. But I'm hoping to mix a super thick batch of render to create texture on the flat bits. If that makes sense - similar to what Lizard Landscapes often does.
I understand what your saying about jiggling the background Jaxrtfm, but as my background is full 3D and the flat part that I'm most concerned about being VERY flat would be the back of the background that would sit against the glass.
I think I'll just a mix a couple of thick layers and literally, render that area.
I've already added PVA to each layer, roughly the same in each layer too, about 1 partPVA to 2 parts water, and then the render powder.



These photos are of the FIRST LAYER of render...
I'll upload photos of what they look like now with 3 layers maybe tomorrow!


Here are pics of the piece with 3 layers.