I personally think they all look nice. The kitty litter/clay backgrounds seem a bit more involved with keeping it moist so it doesn't crack as the months go buy. I haven't heard of s solid silicone background unless your plan is just to smear it all over the back wall and stick some stuff to it.

The foam back ground is easy to do and can be covered with either Silicon with Coco fiber/peat moss pressed into the silicone while it is drying or Titebond III wood glue (it is waterproof) and then press the same into it. There is a thread on here from Deranged Chipmunk on how to do the Titebond III method, but the nuts and bolts of it is you mix either the coco fiber or Coco fiber+peat moss into the glue and make it the same consistency of oatmeal. Then spread it on the foam using some sort of small brush. Then press you desired topper into the wet Titebond.

The Spray Foam will take roughly 24 hours to fully cure. Silicone onto of that takes 24 - 48 hours to fully cure and the Titebond III takes anywhere from 3 days to 7 days to fully cure.

Things to note:

If you have bare spots (and everyone does after one coat) you can not do a 2nd coat of silicone (it will not stick to itself). You CAN do multiple coats of the Titebond. I have also heard that the Titebond method holds up better over time than the Silicone method.


It is really all up to you and what look you are going for. I am currently building a tank using Spray Foam and Titebond III. I have a thread going on the forums to document the build.