New Viv Questions with Pics

[dart345]

Good catch frogg, I been waiting a day or 2 in between silicone and titebond sessions for the background. Would you say for siliicone 24 hours be perfect?

I know on the GE silicone type II it says its rain ready in 4, but on the safe side, I wait a little longer time to cure, all the work it takes to make a nice looking terrarium and then one step where time is cut for short cut = failure..

Good Idea I look forward to see how you will design the box in which it will be removable, I initially had mine removable, then I added my titebond fixture to the box, so now its apart of the background. I still have access to my pump..

[froggsong]

I've GOT to go and cook dinner. I'll check back in an hour or so to see if Andry has gotten back to the thread.

[Andry]

Froggsong. I wasnt able to make The entire cube because i am out of crate to make The entire thing. I just made The two sudes again. It woukd be too hard to remove The entire cube anyway because i want to put great stuff outside The cube. So i am still covering The inside with mesh. I am making The entire cube with The mesh and i will hopefully be able to add the filter foam in as well as a cube inside the box. I hope all of this works. I will wait until the silicone cures before adding water. I do have available the ge silicone II but I used I only for my background and I didn't know if it was strong enough to seal glass to plastic without leaks. I had heard there was a special aquarium sealant for adding or sealing glass in a tank. I needed it because I am also working on a firebelly tank. I went to lowes specifically looking for this sealant and asked the staff if it came in GE brand because I preferred ge over dap but they said it was the only one they had that was an aquarium sealant. . I hope it works.

Thank you for the instructions on the mesh in the pond

[dart345]

There is a type of aquarium silicone, but they market it for its safe with fish, but the ones GE type I or II so I have been told work fine, and silicone is silicone as long as its 100% silicone. ITs the mold inhibitors in which becomes a problem with...

Yea I was wondering how you were going to do that... I applied Gs on mine after I applied the fiber mesh. I just used the flag stones to cover the top part, and it looks nice...

[froggsong]

If it is specifically for aquariums, it should be just fine. There shouldn't be any curing issues or toxicity problems because it is made to be safe for fish.

So, how are things coming along? Did you stop for the night yet?

[Andry]

Finally I am in bed ready to sleep. I got the box finished and top with plenty of fiberglass mesh covering inside and outside the box plus the filter foam and I have this little mesh bag with a draw string that I bought at petsmart that is for fish tanks. It looks like a big sock. I am going to stick the pump inside of that and I should be good to go. Whew! Tomorrow I start putting great stuff again on the new box and after that again start working on adding the substrate. I was thinking of mostly adding just moss on top of the leca and mesh but the one I bought is a block and then expands really stinks really really bad after it expands. Maybe it's because I had the package open and in a cabinet? But if I remember correctly it spelled the first time I tried to use it. Any experience on moss?

[Andry]

Oh and I guess the box ended up being semi removable because I didn't have to tie it down. It is so tightly wedged in I only neededto use one plastic tie to keep a corner down. Although once great stuff is added I will need to use my little burner tool again to cut the gs and get it out. I love my burn tool. I use it for almost everything. It's to shape styrofoam with but I use it even to cut my egg crate in hard to reach places and such.

[froggsong]

Is the moss exo-terra moss? If so, I personally will NOT use it. I have a block of it and I used some to incubate my J. splendida eggs when she layed a few hours after bringing her home and it was all I had. It hatched out some NASTY little critters. Mites, worms, earwigs. Some of the stuff ate into my eggs and killed them. I've never used any since. It molds really easy, and is in general just nasty. The go out in the woods and gather random moss and press it into the blocks without sterilizing it and market it as "bioactive". The problem is that they don't know what actually might be in it. The mites alone can be harmful, depending on what happens to be in it.

Regardless, if it smells bad, don't use it. If you don't want to waste it, use it in gardening outside. If you've still got the receipt and it's not been long since you bought it, return it. Tell them it stinks when you expand it and you don't want to use it.

[Andry]

So which moss do u suggest I use?

[dart345]

I went to pet store and bought packaged sphagnum moss. IT has some green it, and some looks dead, my intentions on using this moss was to actually glue it to the background for cosmetic looks.

Umm, I am curious as to how to "sterilize" the plants and mosses before going into the terrrarium. IME, if we were pulling outdoor plants indoor, we wash the soil and inspect for any foreign critters, because once inside, the pest can ruin crops....

From what I was reading, mosses, you can not use the tap water, because it contains hard minerals when trying to "sterilize" it to eliminate possible unwanted pests. I was reading some have tried using a 10% percent bleach solution in one spray bottle and Hydrogen Peroxide in another bottle, spraying the mosses...

Froggsong, If I am correct I believe you have a "tell all" book about mosses... lol... whats your take on the sterilization part? I have some moss myself, I am about to clean up and attach in the tank background for cosmetic looks. I just bought 3 Gallons of distilled water to begin my cleaning process on my plants that I will receive today.