Quote:
Originally posted by chull13
I am wanting to make a rock wall on the back and sides of my tank. My plan is to have sheets of acrylic that are cut to the size of my tank wall laying horizontally and then just placing the cement mix on the acrylic. once everything is cured I will just silicon the acrylic to the inside wall of my tank. My question is will the cement stick to the acrylic?
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If you drill holes in it and then thread synthetic yarn like used for making killifish and rainbowfish spawning mops, the concrete will stick to the yarn very well. Silicone won't stick to the acrylic on the back side, so the yarn on the back side would again be the strong attachment point for both concrete on the front and silicone on the back.
You can also spray waterfall foam on the back of the tank, easiest if the tank is tipped on its back. Carve or touch up any deep relief or caves into it after it dries, then coat with concrete. The foam will stick to the glass without any silicone. It's always good with a thin coat of concrete to have as many "ties" as possible such as the synthetic yarn, but scoring the surface of the foam will help a lot, especially if you have the Dremel bit that carves a groove slightly wider at the bottom.
There is also the coarse filter mat for ponds that works great. You could experiment with the plastic mesh used under stucco. I've seen it up on walls being stuccoed but never used it for anything myself.