DIY Ultra-Realistic Concrete Background for Aquariums & Vivariums
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- Опубликовано: 5 май 2017
- In this demonstration, I show you a few techniques that you can use to make a very realistic-looking concrete background. There are some limitations to this type of background including the weight factor and the PH factor for aquariums. The aesthetics that these methods provide far outweigh the cons.
Below is a link to the alginate that I used. You can use other ones, but Smooth-On provides some quality products.
www.amon.com/B000KVSU60/
Also you can follow me on Instagram @serpadesign
Hey everyone and welcome to a very special background build! I have been working on this for quite awhile now and am excited to share it with you all. There is really so much that you can do with the techniques that I show in this video, not just for making awesomely realistic looking backgrounds. I will be using techniques like this a lot of future videos. That said this just goes over the basics since so many techniques are presented here. Thanks for watching and I hope that you can use this for your own projects! See the video description for material links.
SerpaDesign Hey man i want know sothing , could you make live video it could be cool .
SerpaDesign DADDY YOU BACK
SerpaDesign Thankyou!! I'm totally going to be using this for my leopard gecko!!
can you do a video on making backgrounds out of polystyrene and expanding foam? thankyou!
What like a live terrarium build?
setting a stiff mesh into the cement will give it extra strength to keep it from cracking as easily. Think of it as miniature rebar like the kind they use in huge concrete structures.
Every video of yours I watch I become more and more grateful. I don’t have the time or resources to learn this via other media. Plus, you are a great teacher. I look forward to starting my projects and then someday being able to complete them.
Youve made me decide to do a custom background for my living vivarium! im doing the spray foam part today!
I just found you a few days ago when I was looking for terrarium ideas and now I'm watching these videos like a backround, not in a bad way, it is very pleasant how you talk, and this combination of a video and talks makes me so calm, haha
Rimvydas M Haha nice! I like to have a diverse collection of content and a lot of people have said these videos are relaxing as well.
Do more of these! Oh my god I love it! I keep going back and forth of making a background or buying one. I’m not confident enough yet to actually make one yet lol. But watching helps a lot ! Thank you!
Oh man, that looks amazing as usual.
Very informative video. I’ve learned a lot from you man and for that I thank you. You’ve truly inspired me to take this all and make it a new hobby in which I am very passionate about. I spent a month cutting and carving foam sheets and cementing them and then painting them. I tried a few other methods and found the one that turned out best but I enjoyed every minute of doing it.
That looks awesome! You're a very good teacher, too. Efficient tutorial.
This is the most realistic DIY background I've ever seen! Really great work!
Probably because it is real
Am heading over to his foam and concrete video.
Should be less weight. 😁
That's a beautiful background, amazing!
Wow! You are a true artist with this.
Fantastic tutorial, and loved the background music! Thanks!
this was so cool to watch! thanks for posting!
looks awesome man! I'm considering this for about half of my 55g keep up the great work!
Great job,and another awesome tutorial!!!
You work more in one day than I have in a lifetime
Wow this is amazing. Thanks so much for sharing
The Master ! Thank you for your superb effort
Awesome video. Would love to see this on a larger scale
Day5 Aquatics I can make it happen!
As a suggestion, after you have the general clay sculpting done, you can take a piece of the rough, bubbly lava rock and use that to add a more realistic pattern to the clay portions by rolling it around over it...
Further, for both making your mould and for casting from it, if you can get some box fans and place them face up underneath your plywood, you get the effect of a vibration table. It helps remove bubbles from the results
wow that looks reaaalllly goooood! cant wait to see what animal is going in there
or what plants you will put in there as well
Great video, as always!
By the time I finished wtching, 102 people watched also. Great job!
I've found that using granite roof shingles works well for backgrounds. Has a very nice look. I shape the shingles with files or chipping then silicone them to the side of the tank being used. Make sure you get them "natural", not chemically treated with any water proofing. They usually have two holes drilled in for securing, I hide these by grinding up some small pieces of shingle, filling the holes with silicone then covering them with some granite "dust".
I love what you did, yes would like to see a larger scale!!
Hi SerpaDesign, this video is great as usual!
You mention coating in epoxy as a potential option - I did my own floors with an epoxy finish and love how they turned out. The epoxy I used was very runny, though, so I don't think it would work well for this.
I'm planning to make a rather large background, with a water feature built in, coated in epoxy; this seemed like a cool place to start. I'd love to see you make one of these concrete backgrounds with an epoxy coat! Any chance? Thanks, and keep making great stuff! :)
Beautiful and realistic. Well done
Por isso sou inscrito no seu canal. Sou do Brasil da cidade de Florianópolis, e aqui no Brasil não vemos trabalhos assim como voce faz. Tenho aprendido muita muita coisa mesmo, tenho um pouco de dificuldade pois não sei falar inglês, mas vou estudar o idioma para aprender justamente para aprender ainda muito mais com teus video, e por isso sou muita grato por voce nos presentear compartilhando teus conhecimento/aprendizado que adiquirestes ao longo do tempo conosco.
Thanks for this tutorial! I absolutely love the look of this but I have big builds (6×2×2.5 and 4×2×2.5) to do and was concerned about the weight. I thought of two ways to make it lighter but still have this awesome result.
1. Make the mould 1-1.5 inches deep and use a ¼ Styrofoam board kinda sandwiched between the layers of concrete. So it's concrete surrounding all sides but the infill is mostly a light foam. You get the rigid outside on all sides but without all that added weight.
2. Foam filling. There's a liquid version of what GreatStuff is (polyurethane resin foam) that you could pour into the mould and allow it to take shape of all those awesome small details. It is meant for backfilling post holes instead of using cement which is really why I thought of it (cement alternative). I've seen it used in prop making like foam filling masks. It's called Sika PostFix but I'm sure there are other similar products. It sets up in minutes so you could use the alginate mould more times before it loses too much moisture to continue using. I also believe you could make large backgrounds in one piece with no problems at all or sculpt the moulds next to one another so they can puzzle piece fit back together once you install them. Since it is resin, you should be able to tint it using resin dyes (it is green to start), paint it in quikrete and use dry brushing for details, or just cover it in concrete and aggregate mixture like your other background build video. Covering it in concrete or quikrete would probably be preferable for a naturalistic texture and filling any tiny air bubbles.
I will try the second method very soon for my builds and hopefully I'll remember to come back and edit with an update.
Very well done! and presented!
I'm loving your techniques and designs. Toward the end of this you mentioned that for larger builds, weight of the background could be an issue, especially with thicker (deeper) molds. This might be relieved somewhat if you first spread a thin layer of your concrete mix to establish the surface texture, then fill the rest of the way with a cement mix including a lot of perlite, which is much lighter. Just a suggestion based on experience making hypertufa.
That most definitely would work and I'm sure it would cut a lot of weight off.
Wow great idea. Perlite would really lighten it up.
Really cool and realistic background. Been trying to figure a method without using cement because of the ph in aquariums
It came our absolutely awesome. I'd love to see what the entire finished product looks like.
I finish the project in this video: ruclips.net/video/QP6eCND84w0/видео.html
I've always used Murphy's Oil Soap for the release layer between mold and cast-even plaster casts. That's another cheap option that many people may already have among their cleaning supplies. :)
This one is so neat :)
It looks great!! I will call my boss immediately and tell him that I quit because I want to make your background!!!
That would be perfect for a desert vivarium, looks great
Arizona Vivariums It would be, but that's not what the plan is. I have something really unique planned for this one.
Looks so good!
waoo dude! Amazing ! Bravo !!
Id love to see a vid on repairing these after the tank has been set up for a long while. and how they hold up after years of use in an aquarium
This was so much more intense than I was expecting, haha
Great results, though!
I’m going to try this in combination with an expanding foam background to make a water dragon tank!
Wow, you're kinda talented!
sick, dude! great job, and equally as informative!
I know right dude, I mean like you know..
WOW, THIS IS GOOD
I would love to see you make a back ground like this but for a 55 gallon tank. I'm going to be getting some Uromastyx lizards later on down the road so I'm looking around for cool ideas. Plus I may explore making my own plywood tank as well to make things a bit more fun. :) Please do a video of a back ground like this but on the bigger scale of a 55 gallon tank.
Fantastic!!!!
I love the snake head formation near the upper right corner at 13:11 😁
Awesome!
Ooooo I need to do this and add natural crevices for humus rich soil so I can try growing Asplenium trichomanes!
That would eliminate every factor except for the air flow and the seasonal rest period.
It's also possible to "glue" broken pieces of concrete back together with masonry glue. It's very much like an Elmer's Glue made for concrete and once dried is waterproof and relatively clear. On any that oozes up between cracks, simply dust a bit of cement powder over the wet glue to hide the glue. You should be able to get masonry glue from most home centers. MTC
I know this is an old video, but I would love to know more about using cement in vivariums. Especially the other methods of stabilizing the PH and also if SerpaDesign thinks using the cement-soaked fabric method would be OK in a background. In my mind, I see it as a great in-between for weight and strength, and low-mess (I don't want to carve foam).
I've seen people make silicone molds with regular silicone 1 mixed with cornstarch. These were small and I'm not sure how large you could go with this technique, but it's worth a try.
good job man. I did something similar a year ago. My problem is that the tank was tall and the concrete slab very heavy. I'm now experimenting with a styrofoam background painted with DryLock.
Very beauty !
Would like to see the demonstration for the 55gal
This is beautiful one.. i just have a small tank, so cant go with cement though.. but saving this for future 👍
Amazing!
so cool!!!
That is so cool.
To texture the clay you can use a natural sea sponge, or a smaller rock.
what? where? I said about the rock in the video and dId it as well at some point in the time lapse.
This is really cool! I admit I am pretty hesitant to make my own background as I want a really realistic background, but I like the way this looks. I am curious if I could make ledges in the baclground; would adding the knitting mesh be enough support? And what about making this for three sides instead of just the back?
Great tutorial! very well explained and the results are just outstanding! It will probably take a few attempts to get the technique right but once you do this process seems much faster than the classic foam sculpting in witch you have to do multiple coats for cement.
Do you think it'll be possible to create some very pronounced ledges with a cast?? I'm afraid this method is limited in the depth offset you can obtain... Might give it a try thou!
Thanks! It really doesn't take long at all and the results really aren't comparable. Also ledges are definitely possible, but you will have to get creative in how you create the alginate mold. I would also highly recommend implementing an armature. Additionally it would be easier to use plaster bandages instead of pouring out a POP mold. I will show much more advanced applications for this in the future, I didn't want it to be overkill at first.
Can't wait to see your next video on the topic! Thank you very much!
Awesome, you should do this and make a horizontal Viv, maybe try it out on a 40 gallon for a bearded dragon-type enclosure
Hey Tanner, do you have a list of tools you use often when building out your terrariums and vivariums? I am just getting started with my first one for my milksnake, but I keep having to make trips back and forth to Lowe's for tools I don't have. I really enjoy these videos. They are really inspiring. Please keep them coming.
Tinted polyester resin with matting reinforcement is a good alternative to concrete. No breaking when removing from the mould and a lot lighter.
I have in my mind to do something like this, with rock back (was thinking of using stone facade pieces used on walls, fireplaces, etc). I want to get a small pump to run water up to the top that will then just trickle down the rock face. I see this frequently while hiking.. water just sort of dripping down a moss-covered rock face. Have you done anything similar? I'm thinking the rock would even jut out slightly further at the top than the bottom in parts of it. This vertical tank option would likely be perfect for what I've got pictured in my head so far.
Try mixing fibre glass shavings to your mix.... will add amazing rigidity 👍🏼 great vids 🏆
Sounds like a good idea to me! I'll give a try next time I'm experimenting.
or just about any fiber additive for concrete.
That looks brilliant. Maybe you could include hair into the cement mix to add strength. One question I do have concerns chemical leaching. Once upon a time they used concrete to make wine distilling vats because it was cheap and fast, but soon realised it had some pretty serious health implications. Would this not effect the health of the inhabitants? Even if you get the ph to manageable levels, I would think it's still a possibility 🤔
Brilliant work though
Soak in vinegar water to speed up balancing the ph.
Very creative
try using concrete fiber as an additive to the cement. This will reinforce the cement and make it less prone to breaking.. You can get in on Amazon reasonably priced.
Hey Tanner I’d much appreciate if this gets answered because I need to know your opinion for this as im doing a “naturalistic back ground for my 100 gallon tank and I feel like this method would be to heavy for the glass, my question to you is can I use expanding foam instead of concrete on push it down a bit so it takes the shape of the mold and later once it dries take it out and “paint” it with a few coats of concrete so that it’s considerably lighter? Your the expert and pro and I’d love your opinion or thoughts!
In the case of concrete to vivariums you can add polystyrene 'pearls' to the mix, this way your concrete becomes much lighter.
For larger backgrounds you can use rigid expanding foam instead of concrete. But be sure to use silicone for the mold material. Expanding foam is ultra lightweight, durable and super easy to use.
just the comment I was looking for please reply. Will the expanding foam fill the gaps as well as the concrete does and provide the same level of detail?
Looking for advice I want to build an aquarium with a waterfall and stream. The upper half will be a terrarium and the lower half aquarium. Where can I buy a pump, filter etc... and General advice. Thank you. Great videos.
To be fair you made this way harder then it needed to be :^)
Haha! I never said it was the most practical background.
How could it be easier?
Old video I know, but if anyone is still viewing this... I would highly recommend a Silicon mold material to make the mold itself. Not only will it last almost forever, but you may be able to resell the mold if you don't want it anymore. Sure it's more expensive, but in this hobby, what isn't? lol PS I have made molds for other things, and instead of using concrete, I used Dental Plaster, great times!!!
instead of concrete you could also use paper mache, or other fiber for a lighter (weight) background, although you'd have to seal it really well to keep it from crumbling, or maybe mix it with resin?
Would you be able to add perlite or vermiculite to the concrete mix to make the background lighter?
I know this video is older but man I want to try this for my 7ftx3ftx4ft viv. Did you ever make a video for large enclosures like you said?
Oh my God what a show, congratulations !!! One question, how much alginate did you use for this job? Do you think this alginate mold is better than silicone? Hug from Brazil, thank you.
I’m getting a hexagonal tank for a future crested gecko. I was planning on trying to make a background like this to fit a theme I’m going for
If you use the silicone do you still recommend using the plaster of paris?
Hi again!
Why did you pick that specific clay? Is it a molding clay or an air dry clay?
Also I'd like to know more about changing the color of the cement with sand (but I'll go dig through your channel to see if you've already made a vid)
I’m in the middle of making a mortar background for a bioactive ball python enclosure. It’s foam covered in 3 layers of mortar. I’ve read that you need to coat it to make it safe for reptiles yet in the video you said that the concrete would be fine as is (without coating) So I have two questions about this: A- In my case does the mortar need to be coated for animal safety after all? (Ie have you used it for any of your animals) B- is there a safe and thinner alternative to epoxy resin? My concrete background is pretty detailed and I think that brushing on a viscous sealant like epoxy may cause it all to crumble.
I’d love to get any advice you can offer :) thanks!
When using hydrolic cement on expanded foam and foam insulating wall board, does acrylic fortifier help w adhesion.? Also you keep mentioning covering with epoxy. What type? Does it come in a Matt finish? Project is an 80 gallon vivarium w a waterfall and small pond for ball python. Thanks for all the great videos and ideas.
Wow, really interesting process but a lot of work.
Awesome tutorial! I love your videos :) You mentioned the issue with pH, taking that in consideration would it be possible to make food and water dishes with this method? After they get soaked in water so the pH is at normal levels.
Thanks and yes it's possible, but it would be easier to simply coat it in epoxy for example.
Awesome
Thanks for the helpful videos.
Are you aware of any products like the Australian Megatreat liquid sandstone that would be available to us in the United States?
Thanks.
Que tipo de alginato has utilizado, pues el enlace que hay en la descricpion no conduce a ningún sitio.
Gracias
Do you know if this would be suitable for a Tailess whip Scorpion (damon medius)?
Would this be possible to use in a large enclosure like an 8x4? Or would it be far to bulky and heavy is there a better method for large enclosures?
Oh also can a concrete background be attached to a plywood terrarium? We are building ours so it will be some kind of wood, not glass. Or, would you recommend the insulation foam method to fit it like your 180 gallon one?
Could you fill your mold with something other than concrete to keep the weight down? Lightwight hydrocal? Sprayfoam?
how did you make a door for the tank you put upright, I'm not very handy with tools, but would like to repurpose my vertical hex-shaped tank into a terrarium
Hey T! Do u have any suggestions on backgrounds for large monitors as they tear up stuff???? Thanks
i love your videos ! plus sounds weird but love your voice to would love to have you read me a book