Cavernous Rock Build ( I know there is a ton of them )

Basshead

New Member
Messages
8
Location
Denver, Colorado
So I really enjoyed the look of all of these faux rock designs people have been doing so I decided to try it myself. I started work on it five days ago and have just been plugging away at it whenever I have some spare time (which currently isn't all that often) I will upload the pictures I have now, and update the thread as the project moves further along.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!:D
20160206_123225.jpg I used Loctite Power Grab to secure the foam boards together into the general shape I wanted.
20160206_123316.jpg Next I used SoudaFoam (a professional grade fireblock) and a foam gun to apply (generously) the expanding foam to create texture that I wanted. I chose this over Greatstuff for two reason; 1) Greatstuff is high expansion so I would have spent a lot more time cutting and shaping it after it had dried. 2) The foam gun has dial-able output so I could tune in the amount of foam that was coming out (unlike Greatstuff which just fire hoses foam all over the place)
20160206_171152.jpg
20160207_212619.jpg After I had gotten the shape I wanted out of all of it I let it dry for 24+ hours before I used a sharp serrated knife to carve away some of the larger spots and to make the hole for the dry cave (on the left) Once I had it to my liking I got my polyblend sanded grout mixed up to a watery, paint-like consistency and went to town with a paintbrush. As of right now I have my second coat on most of it and am waiting another 24 hours for it to dry.
For the third coat I will be mixing in some colors of acrylic paint to give it more of a red rock look.
Side note* I may have gone a little to far with some of the crevices, because now I am having trouble getting the grout into them with the paint brush. I'm not sure how I am going to solve this problem and I definitely do not know how I will manage to get the sealer into them later on down the road.
The other issue I am having is when trimming the sides to make it fit down into the aquarium top opening It ended up not being long enough to touch both the glass sides. I need to find something to fill those gaps once it is in the aquarium to prevent any animals from crawling into them. If anyone has any suggestions let me hear them. (The gaps are roughly 1/4" on each side.
 

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Basshead

New Member
Messages
8
Location
Denver, Colorado
I don't know how the snowboarding pic ended up there, that was an accident. But that is one of many things that prevents me from putting as much time into this project as I would like to be.
 

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