Great Stuff

[Zapher]

Does anyone know how well great stuff would hold up when mounting driftwood that isn't waterlogged into it and then filling it with water? I am worried that if i do that then the driftwood would rip out of the great stuff.

 

[Jennewt]

If the wood is held securely by the foam, the buoyancy of the wood is unlikely to create enough force to rip it out. In the long run, there could be other problems. As the wood softens, it might eventually come loose from the foam. But in the short run, it seems like your idea should work.

 

[Zapher]

Yeah. I might end up having to drill the wood into Plexiglass and then mount the plexiglass into the great stuff. Theres too many options in making tanks! Drives me insane.:crazy:

 

[Zapher]

I know everyone uses co-co fiber to cover great stuff but do you think black silicone would hold gravel or sand instead?

 

[Jennewt]

I've experimented with silicone for covering the bottom of tanks:
http://www.caudata.org/people/JM/sand.html
It will certainly hold fine sand, but the resulting texture is somewhat rough. I think it would hold gravel less-well because the silicone is only applied in a thin layer.

I would recommend doing a test experiment. Apply some silicone to a piece of random material, stick sand or gravel to it, and see if you like the result.

 

[MRIGUY]

My Taricha tank has a black silicone back with GS for shape and holding the wood. The wood was dry when I did it and has since become waterlogged. The GS is not hard like cement, it has a spongy but very firm quality when dry and will allow the wood to expand as needed. I have 2 underwater areas where I attached gravel to the silicone rather than coco fiber and it worked very well. Sand might be a bit harder but until you try you will never know. Mine has been doing well for more than a year at this point and except for my tinkering has been perfectly stable.

 

[Zapher]

I have an empty 40 gallon tank that i am thinking about getting an axolotl for. I want to use great stuff but the problem is the tank is acrylic so i am worried that if i ever wanted to remove the great stuff i would cut up the acrylic. And i think if i managed to silicone gravel down it would work fine with the axolotl except the off chance that a piece might come loose and the axolotl eats it.

 

[MRIGUY]

I have never uses GS with Acrylic but I imagine it would be very difficult to remove without scratching the tank.

 

[Zapher]

Yeah, i think I'm going to have to get a small piece of acrylic and put some great stuff on it as a test. I want to do this anyways just to get a little better understanding of how the great stuff will expand. I'm one of those people that learns best through visuals. Thanks for all the help everyone. Hopefully ill be able to do this project in the next couple of months and get it all up and running.

 

[MRIGUY]

You could also make a false back from a sheet of foam. Build it out and then attach it with a thin bead of silicone. I do not think it would work with a real wet tank though as it would get pretty cruddy behind there.

John