Well here we are, all that is left is to seal it with Pond Armor Pond Sealer this afternoon, then in the morning I'll mount it permanently to the back of the tank and it'll be all set for the auction raffle on Saturday. Biggest hurdle with a 55g 3D background is that you only have 12" front to back depth so you don't want to cut that room down much more than you have too. So I got around that issue by making this one as thin as I could and just cut deeper into the foam as well as doing a bit darker shading in the crevices to give it the illusion of even more depth than it actually is. Worked out well as it has a nice 3D look to it yet 75% of it only takes 1" depth and the other 25% only takes 2" of tank depth.
I also wanted to make it so the winner was not stuck with only being able to use a certain type of filter, such as a canister, because not everyone uses canisters. So the upper right 15" or so is rounded and thinner depth than the the rest so that a HOB filter such as a bio-wheel style can fit right over the background without any headaches.
I hope whoever walks away winning it enjoys it for years to come.
