lifen Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 For a long time now, I have been thinking about making an aquascape that involves a sunken vehicle of some sort. I always thought of the B-17 Flying Fortress as a good sunken scape, or even a submarine that's broken in two. Since I have some extra space for another tank soon, I might make work of this idea. I am wondering however if it's feasible to put a plastic model kit in a saltwater tank. Will the glue poison the fish? Do I have to use special glue (the kind I glue frags with?)? Should the model have paint on it? And would this go off after a while? Or should I just leave it as it is, grey plastic. Will the coralline algae cover it? Maybe there is someone here who has done this in the past and can offer me some insights? All help is welcome. Thanks in advance! Link to comment
solefald Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 man, that is a pretty cool idea! i would just leave gray plastic. it will be covered by coralline algae in a few months Link to comment
MetaTank Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Sounds like a cool idea...don't you use superglue to glue them together? Cyanoacrylate based glue is reef safe, and thats just cheapo superglue. Sounds like a wicked cool idea, I wouldn't paint it unless you intend on somehoe masking it off in sections and using Krylon fusion... Yeah, I think coralline will cover it eventually, it's starting to coat all the plactinc in my tank, but it's mostly PVC. Though it IS all over my snail guard, and that is plain old plastic. I don't know if model plastic will leach toxins though...Not sure what it's composed of But yeah, sounds like a cool idea! Link to comment
lifen Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 Ok, good to know that the coralline will cover it eventually. I've just e-mailed Revell (the makers of the plastic model kits) to ask about putting models in saltwater aquariums. I hope they will reply with an answer. Glad you guys like the idea btw! What size of tank do you think would look good? It would be a tank focussed on the plane. The plane will be in the middle of it. That's why I'm thinking something that's 40x40x20 (cm). But I'm not sure. Link to comment
donnievaz Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Ok, good to know that the coralline will cover it eventually. I've just e-mailed Revell (the makers of the plastic model kits) to ask about putting models in saltwater aquariums. I hope they will reply with an answer. Glad you guys like the idea btw! What size of tank do you think would look good? It would be a tank focussed on the plane. The plane will be in the middle of it. That's why I'm thinking something that's 40x40x20 (cm). But I'm not sure. I doubt that the plastic itself would be an issue. You won't be able to glue the model with superglue, your best bet is probably regular model glue but you'll need to let it completely cure before placing it in the tank. I'd leave it at least a week before doing anything. Model glue is basically just a solvent that melts the plastic parts so that they sort of weld themselves together, much the same way Methylene Chloride is used with acrylic. Link to comment
boxboy Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 I love this idea. sunk boat in shallow reef parts of it above the water line would be nice.. Link to comment
Chrisl1976 Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 I love this idea. sunk boat in shallow reef parts of it above the water line would be nice.. Nice way to hide intakes and returns too!!! Link to comment
lifen Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 I love this idea. sunk boat in shallow reef parts of it above the water line would be nice.. Would the part above the water line still get covered in coralline? Link to comment
boxboy Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Would the part above the water line still get covered in coralline? Nope. But still look cool. What size of tank will you be using for this concept? either way it would rock. to have a large ship/bommmer ect in a large deep tank. or a ship/bommer/ tug boat in a wide shallow tank. Link to comment
lifen Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Nope. But still look cool.What size of tank will you be using for this concept? either way it would rock. to have a large ship/bommmer ect in a large deep tank. or a ship/bommer/ tug boat in a wide shallow tank. I'm not sure yet. But I'm thinking a larger shallow tank that's square. I have another idea but it's an expensive and risky one. Not sure yet. Link to comment
jbowser Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 This is a pretty cool idea! I have a super shallow square tank (12x12x4,5") and no idea what to do with it... If I only could find a small enough model... most are 1/48 and thats way to big... Jb Link to comment
boxboy Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 This is a pretty cool idea! I have a super shallow square tank (12x12x4,5") and no idea what to do with it... If I only could find a small enough model... most are 1/48 and thats way to big... Jb just get a small enough model and cut the bottom off the model. jam it in the sand. that way it looks like it sank into the sand also. some odd rocks around the model would be very nice. use a mj power head inside the model to blow water out. as to not have junk build up inside the model. heck u could even glue crushed coral or sand to the parts that are out of the water to look like its being encrusted. Link to comment
AirportFF Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Most plastic models are made of some type of styrene. Or at least they use to be. Saltwater and plastic Link to comment
boxboy Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Most plastic models are made of some type of styrene. Or at least they use to be. Saltwater and plastic I read this. and darn. is abs made from the same stuff? cause people use abs and pvc all the time in reefs. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 i dont do over flows but it be cool for the box that takes water down to have the side of a ship sucking in water Link to comment
lifen Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 just get a small enough model and cut the bottom off the model. jam it in the sand. that way it looks like it sank into the sand also. some odd rocks around the model would be very nice. use a mj power head inside the model to blow water out. as to not have junk build up inside the model. heck u could even glue crushed coral or sand to the parts that are out of the water to look like its being encrusted. That's actually a great idea! Most plastic models are made of some type of styrene. Or at least they use to be. Saltwater and plastic Dang! I'm wondering if the chemicals can get filtered out by some kind of filtration. Link to comment
boxboy Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 I wanna see some concept photos for this idea!!! Link to comment
Basketball Prodigy Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 How many gallons are you thinking for this build? Link to comment
solefald Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 was just talking about this with a friend of mine. i spent couple of days researching underwater wreck photos, and found some really cool stuff. I am going to do it in my next tank, because BC29 is way too small for this. But I will go for something like this. http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/...erwater-wrecks/ Link to comment
totalimmortal363 Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 Couldn't you coat whatever you buy in epoxy and effectivly seal it from leaching. Link to comment
disaster999 Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 i doubt the plastic will cause any problems. use CA to glue it together and you should be fine. i would go one step and cover the plane in sand or part of the plane in sand so it gives it a more realistic look to it. deliberately destroy the model like the picture above. it would look awesome Link to comment
Soopa1 Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I had the same idea as well. I was going to do a ship, but something like this is hard to pull off with a rectangle tank. If i ever get a cube you pull this off, I may do it. Link to comment
Cnebo Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Something about the scale of the models would throw me off from the idea. Unless you can get a large model in your tank, I think it would just look like those cheap fw decorations. I would love to see this done in a larger tank. Maybe use the backwall as the hull of a ship, that would be pretty cool. Link to comment
jm82792 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 CNC machining molds? I thought about making some lol worthy phrases for your reef from agrocrete like "Kiss My Bicolor Blenny" and others that would offend non reefers. Link to comment
Deckoz2302 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Tang eats miniature plane...breaking news Link to comment
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