[andry]

Even though this is not my first tank, I still messed up by putting too much GS and I had to cut a lot of it off. Can I just glue the dirt on and not worry about all the spongy foam not being sealed all the way? I was planning on using wood glue/titebond to add the peat moss. Or should I seal with silicone first and then add the dirt? Or am I screwed and need to start all over. There will be no water feature in this tank. It is a 20 gallon high. Here are some pics.

 

[frogfreak]

No worries

A lot of people carve their backgrounds. Just soften the square edges off a bit and your good to go.

EDIT I'm not sure about the titebond. I use silicone...

 

[andry]

Thank you. I figured I just got scared of all that spongy stuff being exposed. I mean I've carved a bit out of my other projects just not this much.

I've heard of people using titebond III in their vivariums for water features etc so I decided to use it instead of silicone in my last tank and loved it. Its not as messy and it holds much better and it's just overall easier to apply.

And because there are always some spots that don't get covered well by the dirt I decided to paint my GS with acrylic paint before adding the dirt. Last time I bought black pond foam but it was very expensive. This time I could not afford it and therefore am painting it.

 

[frogfreak]

Good idea. I don't worry to much anymore about the odd spot. I'll stick a plant there.

Funny, everyone says the pay more for the pond foam. Where I am it's a buck cheaper.

 

[andry]

Oh no, I'm talking $14 pond foam vs $2.88 regular

 

[andry]

Where are located?

 

[frogfreak]

$14 a can!

I'm in Canada. I'm paying $9 for regular GS and $8 for pond foam. The tall cans. Still expensive though.

 

[andry]

Well, it's $12.99 I believe for pond foam + tax, so I say $14. And it is the tall can. The short can of standard foam is $2.88 but the tall is the one I should compare which is more like $3.88. Still a huge difference

 

[FwoGiZ]

Whhhattt??!?! 3$ a can??!!
I pay 14$ a tall can of GS
12$ for a small can of black
I hate canada ;(

I also use TitebondIII in pretty much all of my tanks, and I usually sand the GS prior to applying my mix of coco and glue and never had a problem.
I also already carved my GS just like yours and didn't encounter problems.
The only issue I ever had with titebond method was that I added water (a bad recommandation from someone) and then it was pretty much impossible for me to know if I had enough glue or not, then all of the water dripped, and the background was very weak because it didn't have enough glue.
Now, I just use moist coco fiber, no need to completely dry it like you need to do with silicone, but I can easyly know if I have enough or not glue in my mix!

 

[DragonSpirit1185]

I pay $3 a can of GS and $13 a can of pond foam