[Guest]

when putting cork bark onto a background, is there any preferred way of making it stick? i mean it's kind of curved so not a lot of surface area actually touches the glass/silicone.....so does it just stay anyway or do you need to tinker a little bit?

 

[Darks!de]

Well you usually need to tinker. You can do several things. You can cut it to smaller pieces so that they will be flatter. Or you can silicone the back of it and hold it down with force and it will stick. Or you can probably soak it in water or water vapor and hold it straight, when it dries it should be flatter.

Luke

 

[Blort]

I moistened the log and flattened it overnight wrapped in a towel with weights on it (about 40 pounds). It didn't hold its shape without the weights once dry, but in the process the back of the bark cracked in the right places so that I could flatten it dry with a little force.

I turned the aquarium so that the side that was going to be the back was laying flat on a work table then laid down a layer of silicone. After this was done, I put the cork in, flattened it with the weights (under a towel to keep from damaging the wood), and siliconed the edges. After 24 hours the bark was flat as a sheet of plywood and well adhered to the aquarium. I checked for signs of disbonding after 48 hours and didn't find any.

After more than a week, there were no signs of disbonding or condensation.

Marcos

 

[Devin Edmonds]

Depending on how large the piece of bark is, you can often just attach the small amount of bark that touches the glass to the back and it will hold. Cork bark is very light and it doesn't take a lot of silicone sealant to hold it in place. The gap that's produced behind the bark can then be filled with fir bark, LECA, soil, etc. Good luck,

 

[TimsViv]

I used an electric planer to plane down the back of the cork to get some good sealing surfaces. You could probably, also cut it down with a sawzall.

 

[dvknight]

...or you can cut the cork to fit the back of the tank, lay the tank on its back and then fill in with Great Stuff. In my experience, this is the most effective method and prevents frogs from getting behind the cork.

 

[Guest]

i ended up cutting the curled ends off with a saw and then sanding down the backs so that they were smooth enough to get a lot of surface area on the back. they seem to be pretty secure although the silicone is still curing. thanks for the hints