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Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

How do I make a background ?! Getting frustrated
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How do I make a background ?! Getting frustrated
#1
Hey everyone as you can all see i'm a beginner in dart frogs and i just cannot get this background thing down. I tried using a coconut fiber for a background and the silicon does not stick it to the glass...hmmm so no i think i wanna go for the foam background but where can i find the right stuff for it ? And what do i use to color the foam right? well i hope someone can help me out here thanks again,

kurtz
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#2
Hey,

You use great stuff. You can pick it up from Home depot, A tube of G II Door and window silicone (brown), and your coco bedding. spray your greatstuff then let it drie overnight, apply silicone over the whole thing, dump the coc bedding all over it, press it down. Let it dry in that position, stand it up, remove the excess coco bedding, then apply touch ups.

Thanks,
Jesse
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#3
Kurtz,
I would throughly clean the glass before you spray the foam, if you have already tried to apply silicone directly to the glass. The silicone will leave a film on the glass and may not allow the foam to adhear to the glass.
once you spray the foam, be sure to let it dry overnight. Then you can apply the silicone, work in small sections so the silicone does start to skin over, press the coco fiber into the silicone. After you get the entire background covered, you can stand the tank upright. There will probably be some areas that you will need to touch up. Just repeat the process with the silicone and coco fiber until all bare spots are covered.

Cindy Dicken
Vivarium Concepts
www.vivariumconcepts.com
www.rainforesthabitats.com
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#4
Make sure the coco fiber is totally dry or it won't stick to the silicone.
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#5
thanks alot every1 i appreciate it!
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#6
And if all else fails...don't get frustrated. I have had several tanks that haven't a background at all. Especially pleasing to someone's eye... yes, but not at all necessary. If we're speaking of a relatively small viv, like a 10 or 15 gallon, just go with a vivid imagination, but keep it simple.
Your first couple of tanks should be a learning process. You can read all you want and still not have the ability to master what you see on web searches. Experiment with a few small vivs... get your feet wet. Your viv should sit a couple of months to allow for temperature gradation and plant fruition before introducing frogs. This process will allow you to enjoy your darts and still play with a few vivs under construction.
Blessed be and have a wonderful experience!
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#7
thanks alot yea i guess ill use this 37 gallon as a first experience since ill be using it for the hardier tincts and then ill try setting up a smaller 20 gallon long for thumbs and then if i decide to use my 65 gallon long for a vivarium then that will hopefully be my mastered tank
but thanks again for the incouragement
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#8
Kurt,
most thumbnails are arboreal, and a 20 long in the standard configuration will not provide them with the height they would like.

Cindy Dicken
Vivarium Concepts
www.vivariumconcept.com
www.rainforesthabitats.com
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#9
yea after i posted that reply i was like wow did i just say that.. pretty stupid of an idea for me to come up with but i would pry move the tincts to a 20 gallon long so that it would be easier to monitor them.
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#10
could always do it the old fashioned way like i am Tongue
make it out of natrual rocks Tongue

i'm going to be making a cliff face backing on my new viv modeled after a natural rocky cliff thats in a local park. the tons of flat rocks all around its base are perfect for stacking and siliconing together to make a cliff that'll hopefully look similer to the one in the park. even if it doesen't look liek the real one, it'll look quite realistic.

doing it this way because i somewhat suck at sculpting and painting so it probably woulden't look natural or realistic at all if i used foam or whatever.
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#11
yea i was definatly considering that its funny how u said something bout that. when ur done send a pic of it and let me see how it looks!
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