Foam walls

Well the next task on my list is to create my foam wall background. This is an interesting idea that I subscribed to while reading on how to set up a tank. What you end up with is a 3 dimensional background that helps to expand the available space for bacteria (the good stuff) to collect and increases the filtration.

The concept is pretty simple. Take some "egg crate" material the size of your back wall and apply some expanding closed cell foam to it. Embed in some rocks and when it cures - viola. Most of the write ups I have read talk to coating the structure in epoxy for UV protection but I'm not going to do that for two main reasons. 1) I am using pond foam which is intended for use outdoors and has UV protection in it and 2) I don't intend on having this tank long enough for the wall to break down under UV light. So I'm not going to put the epoxy on the wall.

I have the egg crate material and the pond foam. Today I am going out to buy about 15 pounds of rock rubble from a guy who sells out of his back yard. Locally he is spoken well of for his corals and live rock so this is sort of a trail run to see what he has and his operation in general.

I am also going to use some PVC pieces to create tunnels in the wall to provide more hiding holes for the "critters" I hope to get.

The intent of the entire operation will be to provide a more realistic look to the tank than looking in and seeing a pile of rocks rising from the seabed with nothing around them. Not too many reefs that I've seen personally or in pictures look this way.

Here is a picture that I copied from a thread showing how the 3D effect can truly add realism to the tank.