Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, looks like like my 20 gallon high vert. experiment has been a great success!! I've had the foam and wood background up for 3 weeks now and have finally gotten the foam covered/concealed in a very natural way. I tried alot of methods at first and had some ups and downs with them. My first attempt was to cover the cured foam with black silicone and then 'sprinkle' dried coco grounds (Eco-Earth)over this. This was the biggest, smelliest mess I had gotten into!! The vinegar smell from the silicone stinks...especially when you have some much silicone spread before you!! After doing sections at a time and topping it off with silicone, I sat the tank aside for a week to fully cure. Well, What i ended up doing was peeling out nearly all of the silicone as this stuff definitely didn't adhere well to the smooth finish of the foam. I ran to ACE hardware, grabbed plenty of Weldbond and decided to try something else. Rather than mixing the Weldbond with water and the organic matter, I just brushed it on in a thin layer (much like the silicone methods) and sprinkled the coco grounds to it. The smell was much more pleasant and reminded me of elementary school days when we used to squirt glue all over our hands and 'play with it'. Well, it's been several days since the weldbond method has been applied and everthing seems to be holding tight!! All that remains are a few places here and there that need re-touching. I'm 100% pleased with the results from Weldbond and will never look back to cork, coco panels or tree fern. I'll take some pics once the touch-ups are done.

-Bill J.
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Ill second that. Ive got a few phelsuma tanks that I used the same method on, and Im really happy with how it turned out. BTW, mixing with water and then the organics is a good way to patch up "holes", and it gives variety to the texture.

I agree with you on the patchup trick. I soak piece of spahgnum moss in the 'goo' and stuff it in the holes and hard to coat areas. I have some pice of this experimental 20 gallon high vertical. Check out the link below.

-Bill J
Experimental 20 gallon foam background vivarium

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If it doesnt work this time, just cut and paste into a new window.
http://www.frognet.org/gallery/album21

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I too have used the foam and weldbond method for my 20g high.

Ive found that the foam however, shrinks a bit over time and now has a few folds on my background. Nothing serious though, i'll just have to fill it with more of the mix (weldbond, peat, leaves, sphagnum moss, etc).

Your tank looks great so far. What do you plan on putting in it?

M.N

I'll be keeping a group of red amazonicus or trio of imitators in it.

-Bill J
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I love both of those frogs. You really can't go wrong with either one. However, I love the red color. By the way, that's a great looking tank.
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

Bill,

I'm having trouble getting your links to load. I keep getting an error message.

I, too, have experimented with the foam background on a 20 gal long converted into a front-opening 20 gal tall. I used the black silicone method and found it rather effective. However, I didn't use peat moss, or coir dust, but rather coconut husk chips and sphagnum. I found spreading the silicone to be a tedious and messy prospect, so I just started liberally drizzling the stuff over the area I wanted to cover, grabbing a big handful of the mix, and squishing it down into the silicone-laden area. That worked well, and it only took me about 1.5 tubes of the silicone. I think it's a pretty good trick.

I'd love to see some pics of the weldbond plus substrate background. It sounds interesting.
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

n/p
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

...but is Weldbond the same as the goodstuff foam that Black Jungle did on their site? Or is this another item? And would you compare the 2 if they are different. thanks-Maggie

It's not the DOW Great Stuff foam but rather and adhesive used to hold the organic matter (peat, coco fiber/grounds, sphagnum, bark or what have you) to the foam after it has set and cured. Weldbond should be easy to find at an ACE hardware but there may be other stores in your locale that carry it (not easy to find where I am). Weldbond resembles school glue in alot of ways but is extremely strong and water resistant when fully cured. It is also rated as food safe so you know there won't be any chemicals that could harm your animals and plants. I find this a great alternative to using silicone to cover the back. Silicone adheres poor;y to the cured foam and tends to peel off easily. After running into this problem with silicone I decided to switch to Weldbond and will never look back. There are various methods of using this stuff and it thins easily with water. Some people mix 1:1 water:weldbond solution and then soak a variable ammount of the organic matter and stick this to the foam. I water mine down with a 0.5:1 ratio and then sprinkle coco grounds (resembles coffe grounds) over this and it has completely cured and holds the grounds in very well.

-Bill J

p.s. You may recall the discussion on Flevepol (unavailable in the US) which is being used by the Dutch hobbyiest to create those extradordinary vivariums. Weldbond is a very similar alternative to Flevepol.
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OH, thanks Bill! I remember that Fleverpol thread as I was EXTREMELY interested in what advancements we might make in America using this wonder product. Sounds like the Weldbond is a nice new tool in our Hobby. I will have to try it on my next tank(building out in January). Hey, Sorry if Someone asked this before, but is there a link showing steps to using this over the foam? I got the link on the foam application from Black Jungle, but all along these discussions I hadn't made note of the weldbond info cause I thought it was the same stuff. Thanks-Maggie