# First background build for my 540 litre Malawi tank.



## MCFCdaniel (Jun 22, 2013)

Firstly I am a newbie here so wanted to say hello to everybody 

Anyhow enough of the pleasantries, I have just completed my first aquarium background build and wanted to share with you guys as well as picking up some useful tips for future builds.

I live in Sweden and since I am not not native I found firstly picking the correct materials rather difficult, anyway I had some help from friends here to select the adequate resources and begun work.

Firstly here are the materials I used:-
-7cm thick Polystyrene sheets
-Tiling grout
-Aquatic safe silicone
-Powder color pigments.
-2 component clear floor lacquer

I won't go through any step by step because you know how it's made, carve the polysterene, cover in a few layers of tile grout, more grout with pigment etc.

This is the part then that I wanted to add a little. I had heard that Cichlids can gnaw on the grout/cement and ruin it over time and I didn't want this to happen so I spoke to friends and while I wanted to use Epoxy resin I was persuaded to use a 2 component clear floor lacquer as the people I was seeking advice from had made many backgrounds using that. This is the specific brand name, it's Swedish "Hagmans Klarlack EP-V", it's a two component water-dispersed clear epoxy varnish.

Anyway to cut to the chase the picture is of the build after the second coat of lacquer and the finished article. I'm quite happy with it for my first build, looking back there are things I wished I had done differently and certain areas that I wished I'd spent more time on but overall I think it went well for my first crack.

I have wondered though whether or not I should submerge it once the lacquer has matured or whether or not I should take my friends advice and just leave the background stand for a month. He said he did that and then rinsed the background a few times and that it then didn't affect his ph levels. Any suggestions on that area would be most appreciated as I wouldn't want to kill off my little gilled friends and maybe some of you have used similar materials to seal your backgrounds.


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