Shields All came today, so i put down a coat on the top, sides, bottom, and front (can't do the back cause its laying on its back, but i'll get that later once the first coat sets up some).

My impressions of the stuff:

I think i like it. It goes on very easy. I was using a stencil brush so that i could get down in the cracks and get the hard to reach spots (i'm going to use a spray bottle for the next couple applications). It's a liquid sealer almost as thin as water (it's pretty thin) and its milky white in color. When you apply it with a brush it goes on very easy. It seems to be cloudy in some spots when you put it on but once it dries it becomes clear. If you use it just try not to leave areas where its pooling up. Brush it out as best you can. It dries fairly quick. Says to the touch in 1 hour and can be recoated 3-4 hours later. Its recommended to use at least 2 coats by manufacturer for what they think you are using it for, but since this is going in a viv, i'll be probably doing 4 coats, just to make sure i get a couple layers every where.

Now, it does have a shine to it kind of like when you seal a background with silicone, makes your work appear to be wet. Some may not like this but i say since it's in a viv with a mister where stuff is usually wet majority of the time then this really isn't a big deal to me. Now a trick to combat the shine is to sprinkle colored sand on the final coat of sealer. I did this with my 10 gallon vert background where i used silicone as the sealer. The Shields All leaves kind of a slick finish, so if your animal needs some help in the traction department sand may not be a bad idea. I think i'm going to add some again on this project at the end but i'm going to do it in a different manner. Last time i sprinkled it on with my fingers. This time i'm going to throw the sand at the background to get a bigger spread of the grains as i just want to get a light bit of sand on it. I've seen my leucs feet sliding when trying to get up the glass when it was wet before so i'm going to help them out a bit with a tad bit of traction but not alot.

Now the bad thing about Shields All is the price. It's $25 a gallon, which for me isn't bad, especially since I know its going to be safe for my frogs. The bad part is that it's only sold from the manufacturer which is in Florida so that means you have to have it shipped. The $20 for standard group shipping makes this stuff $45 a gallon. The other thing is that i'm not even going to use close to 1/3 of a gallon most likely.

so basically

Shields All = $25 a gallon
Shipping = $20
peace of mind knowing its safe for my frogs = Priceless.