A new chipmunk build.....

[deranged chipmunk]

Bill,

Can you educate me (and others) on the importance of that. Never heard of titebond ...let alone used in that manner, and wood glue!?!?! In the past I have only used silicone and ecoearth and good to go...However overtime...the ecoearth WILL fall off the silicone and then I will eventually have a shiny (from silicone) greatstuff wall and need to redo it. Might learn a thing or two here.... Fire away!

Sure, titebond 3 wood glue (green bottle) is animal safe and 100% waterproof. For one, there's no smell, second, no need for gloves. If you get some on you, it peels off, just like we used to do with Elmer's glue as kids. You just make up a nice slurry of glue and your background material of choice and paint it on with a brush of some sort. It holds up to water well, even running water. When I get home from work, I will take a pic of a section of my mantella tank that had had water running over it since 12/2. There is no wear or erosion like you get with silicone and coco fiber. Also, you don't need to have your coco fiber 100% dry to utilize this method. It helps, but not necessary. The one true downside is it takes about 3 days or so to completely dry and cure. But once it does, it's bullet proof!! For good measure, I normally do 2 or 3 coats. Oh yeah, there's another advantage, if you have bare spots, you can cover them up with another coat. On my last coat, I like to sprinkle some dry fiber or peat to give it that "fluffy" texture. And I add peat moss to the coco fiber to give my background a darker appearance.