My 40 gallon Vertical Build Progress for my Whites Tree Frog

[frogluver]

Ok I know I've been holding out on you guys with the pics lol, but I've been sooo busy the past couple of weeks! And I really didn't have time to work on my build. However, I have some pictures of what I've done since my last post in this thread: I carved out a series of "streams" in the GS foam, like I described above with my model, and then attached coco fiber soil to the cured Great Stuff with 100% silicone sealant.

I carved out the streams using wood carving tools that my brother lent me (he's into carving figures out of wood—whittling). I started carving where the tube, which will be attached to a pump, came out of the cured GF foam. Once I finished carving, I applied a layer of silicone sealant in the interior of the steams to waterproof it and thus prevent mold growth....mold likes to grow in porous areas and the GS foam is porous when you cut into it. Once that was dry, I coated aquarium gravel with silicone and also attached it to the interior of the streams as well. This will make the set-up look more natural.

The next step I did was cover the cured Great Stuff with the silicone. I applied it on thick with a paint brush (I found that it got annoying to smear the silicone on with a gloved hand, so I used an old paintbrush I found.....it worked perfectly). Once I was satisfied with the silicone application (it took a total of two 3-oz tubes of silicone), I pressed dry coco fiber soil firmly onto the background. Then I left to dry for about a day. Once it dried, I brushed/dusted off all excess soil. There were a few spots in which the soil didn't stick to the background and as a result, my next step is to do touch up work !