[john_159]

i dont have quite enough cork bark to fill the entire back of my tank that im redoing. i was curious to know what i could use to fill the space instead of just sphagnum, and no foams either. the local pet store sells a "climbing backround" for hermit crabs that looks like coco fiber to me, yall think i could silicone that on, then the cork?

 

[rjmarchisi]

What I did was after the cork was firmly in place, smear extra silicon over the bare sections of the wall and make a nice sloped transition to the cork and apply ground cocohusk to it. I think a background missing some cork with the husk in place looks really nice.

rob

 

[john_159]

that sounds cool, i like the idea of the ground transition, more realistic.

 

[Arklier]

Just buy another cork curl from the pet store and cut it to fit the hole.

 

[Guest]

I kind of did what rob talked about but instead used the foam as the background and sprayed it around some nice cork peices, then did te whole coco fiber process over the foam. I think the coco fiber highlited with the cork looks really nice, bt then again i guess im a little bias

 

[EDs Fly Meat]

Hey John,
I get my cork from black jungle and peace of the tropics. But! I had the pleasure to go to Jon Warner' house and see some of his tank set ups. He uses tree fern backings. Instead of silicone, he wedges live moss into he cracks. It works really well in keeping frogs out of cracks and after a month or so you get some nice moss and fern growth on the back to green up the tank. I used to do cork, but Jon has sold me on his way. I'll try to post a picture later to show you what I mean.
Dave

 

[rjmarchisi]

Tree fern

Most people tend to shy away from tree fern panels as the are non-renewable and cost much more than cork bark. Before I knew this I used some in the back of my 29 gallon tank. It does look really great for larger frogs, but I would not use it with thumbnails due to all of the nooks and crannies that they could get trapped in.

rob

 

[Guest]

do not use the coco fiber they sell for hermit crabs to climb on. Within a few months the background will fall apart because of the high humidity.

 

[john_159]

i just went ahead and bought another piece of cork but thanks for the ideas