I saw another youtuber do this but they added little plastic pots to put plants in and then sprayed the foam over the pots! I can't wait to do this! So cool!
I've done both ways and this way ends up being less expensive and less tools that youll need. Using Pond & Stone Great Stuff is a life changer over using regular spray foam and painting it with silicone. Also the little pots I added are all empty in my other viv. I'm a master gardener and even I don't want to mess with replanting tiny 1-3" pots over & over.
I’m building my first vertical tank right now and have been following your builds as inspiration. Thanks for sharing! I can’t wait for this thing to be done.
great job but i’ve made quite a few foam backgrounds and i have one small critique/piece of advice. when you add the silicone for the foam to stick to, add it all around the perimeter of where the background will be, not just the middle. over time the foam will start to curl up around the edges leaving gaps where small animals could get trapped. also the silicone works even better as a gripping surface if you spread it out instead of leaving it in thick lines, and personally i like to sprinkle sand over the spread out silicone while it’s still wet to make the foam stick even better
Do you apply the foam onto the wet silicone? I’ve laid silicone down and it refuses to dry after three days. Driving me crazy, not sure if I used bad silicone or what
it works in water but the coco fiber will put tannins in the water which will give it a brown/red tinge like weak tea. this isn’t unhealthy for the animals/plants and is actually beneficial for a lot of species, but if you’re going for crystal clear water i would recommend using sand, gravel, and/or stone dust instead
Probably fine but might wanna keep the water away from touching anything that leaks materials tiny particles or whatever they are called lol so that the fish don’t get harmed in the experiment :)
I've seen other youtubers use this method for wet tropical enclosures, and that spray foam is specifically made for ponds (great stuff pond & rock foam in black) so I'm guessing you'll be fine.
He does this for high humidity tanks as well, he owns a large reptile shop here in Tucson AZ and is a super nice and really knows his stuff, you should see his new shop!
So the silicone is for adhesion I assume, i wonder why you dont need to spread it around or shave the foam and then add it ? Is this just a master way at skiping the hastle of that 😮
He said to give more surface area for the foam to stick on. If you don’t use silicone, the foam has nothing but smooth glass to hold onto and doesn’t form a good bond.
This turned out horribly for me… the spray foam didnt stick to the silicone or the enclosure it all ended up peeling off. on top of that the dry coco fiber and moss didn’t stick to the foam at all. Was a little disappointed but started from scratch, scrapped it all off and sprayed the foam straight on the glass
@@EverEvolvingExoticswhat a douchebag. Loud background music is almost universally disliked, no matter the content. Why would anyone want to be your customer when you act like that towards a simple suggestion? I mean, grade school kids can make these enclosures...
you don’t know what you’re talking about, i’ve made dozens of these backgrounds and if you don’t put something for the foam to stick to it will just peel off the glass after awhile. in fact if i want to make a removable background i do this without the silicone and then it pulls out with almost no effort after it’s been cured for a few days
@@Bunny-ns5ni well your backgrounds aren’t sturdy, foam doesn’t stick to glass. a small animal can easily get behind the background if it’s not secured, and it’ll die there if it gets stuck. i make backgrounds on glass then give them a light pull and they come right off
@@Stephen-jw8ci in 12 years of being in the hobby, not once has that ever happened to me. Expanding foam sticks very easily to glass on its own, it's not a problem at all. If an animal makes it behind the background somehow, then you obviously haven't done it right(it shouldn't even be possible with how expanding foam acts). Idk what the hell you're doing if it falls off with a light pull. Maybe you aren't doing it correctly?
@@Bunny-ns5ni how exactly would i not be doing it correctly? you clean the glass with rubbing alcohol and then spray the foam onto it once it’s dry, there’s really not a way to do that incorrectly
