Foam background questions

[kpasa]

Hi, I'm new to this site and to creating a natural background for my vivarium. I'm doing some research on the different options available and I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on my questions to make sure I'm off to a good start.

I've browsed many sites to see examples and I think I like the look of the expanding foam backgrounds covered in coco fiber/moss the best. I am leaning towards using the Great Stuff pond foam since it is black and waterproof even though it's a bit more expensive. I notice that most people are using black silicone to cover the foam for waterproofing and to stick the moss to.. is there a reason you can't bypass using the silicone and just stick the moss and coco fiber directly to the foam before it dries (especially since the pond foam is waterproof as it is)? Has anyone tried this method? It seems like it would be a lot cleaner/easier/cheaper this way but I'm not sure if there are any drawbacks or risks associated with this.

Also, it seems like people are split between putting the foam directly on the glass and putting a layer of silicone on the glass prior to the foam. Has anyone had any bad experiences putting it directly on the glass? I've heard the concern are with the glass breaking but that seems pretty unlikely to me. Just curious what you all thought about that.

Thanks for any help and I'll probably be posting some more questions as they come to me so I get this right the first time!

[Ozymandias]

the reason people tend no to put the cocofiber directly on the foam as it's curing is because it really doesn't still all that well and in the end doesn't look that good. most of the the time though people arent using the pond and stone great stuff though so don't know how it would look.

for putting down the layer of silicone i don't think it really matters especially in smaller tank. in bigger tank though i put down a panel of egg crates (light diffusers) to provide some structural support but even though don't bother with the silicone.

[Grimm]

Yeah the coco will not stick evenly to the expanding foam. It ends up looking terrible.

Ive never used egg crate for support, and on my old tank the foam was holding up +5 pound peices of driftwood perfectly fine. I did however silicone all the glass. If I was to do another tank, I would continue to put a thick layer of silicone on the visible glass sides, and only add a few silicone zigzags across sides that will be hiden.

[kpasa]

Thanks for the replies.. I did decide to put a layer of bronze silicone on the glass and I just ended up going the usual route with the Great Stuff foam (I got the window and door one, not the black pond foam). I figured it's probably just best to go through all of the steps and make sure I leave nothing out. I'll be putting the silicone and coco fiber on this weekend so we'll see how that turns out. I'll try to post some pictures when I'm a littler further along.

Thanks again for the quick replies

[Grimm]

WIndows and doors is not recommended. I would cover what you have done up with the "gaps and cracks" type of GS. The window and doors has anti mold additives I believe.

[kpasa]

Thanks for the tip.. I didn't know that about the windows and doors, and I have actually heard of people using it. I did take your advice though and covered up all of the old foam so I don't run into any problems down the road.

Everything else has been going pretty smoothly so far and I have all of the coco fiber stuck on the background so I should have everything complete within a couple of days.

How long do I need to wait after completing the silicone before adding plants and animals? about 3 days or so?

I have some fire belly toads and Anoles that will be going in the tank and I was wondering about the lighting, also. I currently just have a basking light that is on for 12 hours a day but I have mostly artificial plants. Do I need any additional lighting for the animals and plants or will that one light suffice (it's a 29 gallon tank setup)? If I need something else, is there anything you can recommend?

Thanks

[Kyle The Toad]

Wait until there are no more fumes and everything is dry before you add plants and animals. As far as lighting is concerned, a bulb with a Kelvin rating between 6500 and 6700 should work marvelously. But really, it depends on what plants you'll be growing. Make sure that your light fixture/ fixtures are large enough to shine light all over every plant in the tank, if they aren't you will get horrible growth. On the bulb's package it will say 6500k or 6700k, and T-8, T-10, T-12, etc. along with it's length. Choose whichever suits your needs. Have fun!

[Trex22seg]

i personaly dont put either great stuff or silocon directly to the back wall for one reson if u buy styrofome board and apply the great stuff to that it is not permenint and the looks fine just white the only down side is its with is about 1/2 an inch so youll have half a inch less space but i dont like any thing perminit because chances are your gonna want to change that one day and its gona be hard to get it all out

Also go to youtob and wach jessyakaslicks how to build a frog vivarium and background vids they are great.