Background construction/Missed spots

baileyjames6 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 09:00 PM

Hi Everyone,

I just finished the background on my exo terra tank. I used black silicone, great stuff foam and coco fiber that was dried out very well. I have been working on it for a long time making sure I gave everything plenty of time to dry and cure. With the tank lying on it's back it looked pretty good. I took it inside this weekend and put it on it's stand in my living room(Putting the exo-terra stand together was another story, huge PIA). I put the little clay balls in for drainage followed by screen mesh and then more substrate on top, the tank is now ready for planting. I was taking a close look at the background after all this was done and noticed I missed some areas, I now have some embarassing white spots of Great Stuff foam poking through!! I'm sure I am not the first person that this has happened to. Does anyone have any cosmetic recommendations for covering this up. At this stage I don't think I should go back to using anymore silicone. This is my first try at this so I'm not surprised that this happened and I am interested in seeing if anyone has any advice.

Best Regards,

Bailey

froggsong · #2 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 09:11 PM

I am just putting this out there for anyone's advice, not suggesting it for you to try without anyone else's opinion.
Elmer's white school glue is non-toxic and often consumed with no ill effects by children. I would guess, if it will stick, that using some to glue on more coco fiber would be fine.

baileyjames6 · #3 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 09:36 PM

Thanks for putting that out there, I'd like to see what some other opinions are as well. I want to get as much info before I act as I don't have much more room for error here.

JohnEDove · #4 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 10:39 PM

The Elmer's sounds good to me if it could stand up to the humidity, on that I have no clue. One glue I know would work is Gorilla Glue. It dries rather quickly and is water/moisture resistant. The draw back is that it foams as it dries so you would need to watch it and squish the coco fiber into it as it foams thus pushing down the lumps of foam and covering the GS.

Green Ghost · #5 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 10:43 PM

My two cents is use silicone. If you don't have any animals in there and there's no water, then just use silicone and patch it up. Make the layer of silicone as thin as is practical. The thinner you make it, the faster it dries on the outside. The outside should be relatively dry and holding the coco fiber properly within 20 mins. It will still need 24 hrs to cure properly, but you can continue to work on your tank in the meanwhile without having to wait a whole day.

Personally the only glue I would use is the gluegun type (hotglue) but that would be my 2nd choice after silicone.

2 Days ago I siliconed in a dead tree branch that I cut off a tree into an up and running tank (with frogs and fish in there). So if I can do that, for sure you can go ahead and work on your tank.

JohnEDove · #6 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Green Ghost

2 Days ago I siliconed in a dead tree branch that I cut off a tree into an up and running tank (with frogs and fish in there). So if I can do that, for sure you can go ahead and work on your tank.

Thank you for that info. I have had to do some patching on my water feature to control the flow direction with silicone and feared it was setting back my useable date by a weeks curing time.

Green Ghost · #7 (**permalink**) 07-16-2008, 04:00 AM

With silicone the danger is wet silicone getting in an animals eyes. I wouldn't want one of my frogs to get some wet silicone (meaning fresh out of the tube) on it's skin either. I'm sure that would be a problem.

baileyjames6 · #8 (**permalink**) 07-16-2008, 07:14 PM

Well it's not even planted yet so I don't have much to worry about there. I have a compact top so the lights have been ordered and I'm not planted until they are set up. Thanks for the advice, I was concerned before but I'll go back and silicone that patches.

mhbird · #9 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 03:37 PM

cover the areas with moss :]

froggsong · #10 (**permalink**) 07-18-2008, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Green Ghost

With silicone the danger is wet silicone getting in an animals eyes. I wouldn't want one of my frogs to get some wet silicone (meaning fresh out of the tube) on it's skin either. I'm sure that would be a problem.

are the fumes not dangerous to the animals as well? They certainly aren't very good for humans. I would think that the fumes released during the curing process would be harmful to herps.