# New Planted tanks and DIY Expanding Foam Backgrounds



## luvlylillaurz (Jul 22, 2011)

Hi Guys,

So I've been hastling Josh (my other half) for ages to do something with our crested gecko tanks as we always kept them in exoterras with plastic/silk plants etc in, and I always liked the live planted tanks. He agreed to give the expanding foam backgrounds a go, and so now we are writing this out, and we've added in photo's to help anyone else wanting to try it. We've also added photos of other tanks as the "final product". They each take about a week to make, and tended to take a 750ml can of foam, and 2 tubes of silicone. So here are Josh's notes on how he made it, hope it helps anyone else looking to do it:

I gutted the tank of all the old stuff and cleaned it all up - if you're using a new tank just take out the foam background!



Glue in your decor how you like - wood, plant pots etc.


As soon as it's set (i used a glue gun so a few minutes), you can spray your expanding foam - I used an own brand one rather than an expensive one. The foam takes a few hours to set, so lie the tank down, spray one wall, let it set, then move the tank on to the next wall, spray it etc, till in this case, all three walls have foam on, let it set completely. You can see I left a big hole slightly right off centre - I want to use this as a place for plants later.



Trim the foam back, make it flat where the lid will go back on, open up any plant pots etc, and I cut the grooves for wiring etc back in.



I then donned my rubber gloves, and used an own brand, brown 100% silicone glue to paint over the background. I then pressed bone-dry coconut husk fibre substrate into the wet glue - the glue starts to cure in 5-10 minutes, so I worked in sections, avoid getting glue where you don't want it if you can! But you can scrape it off with a razor blade later if necessary.






Then touch up any spots you've missed, or where the coco husk didn't fix, make sure the point where the foam meets the glass is well covered otherwise it will look ugly! After that, use a scalpel/razor blade to scrape off the excess, and make the edges look neat.
Before:


After:


Before:


After:


The sides and back of the tank looked awful - i'd seen other people paint the glass with black silicone first before putting the foam on, but that seemed expensive and time consuming to me, so I thought I'd try using black sticky back plastic, cutting it to the same shape and sticking it on - air bubbles were a nightmare, but it worked! Cost about £3 for 2m of plastic, covered about 3 tanks, I would estimate it would cost about £30 in black silicone for the same amount. So up to you on which method you prefer! If it's just a foam wall on the very back wall, and no-one well ever see the back anyways, you can get away with just leaving it, but for mine, you can definitely see the sides!

Before:


After:


So that's the background done! I then put in some clay drainage balls, and a separating membrane, then put in the compost:







I then put in the lighting, attached it on to our automatic spraying system, and planted it up! So here's the end result:


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## luvlylillaurz (Jul 22, 2011)

And then here are the other tanks I've done over the past couple of months:

This was the first tank I tried - the practice one! This is now in use for electric blue day geckos:


Second tank, housing pygmy chameleons:


And then the rest of the crestie tanks:







We've also planted up a tank for a snake (boiga cyanea) with a non-expanding foam background, I just glued the matting that you put in hanging baskets outside your porch to the walls, so that plants (in this case pothos) can creep up it. Just another idea if you want a planted tank but don't want to do the expanding foam!



The current project is a paludarium for the fire bellied toads using the foam again, fingers crossed that looks good in the end!

Hope this has helped! 

Laura and Josh


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## Volitans (Jul 15, 2013)

Fantastic! I've been putting off taking the plunge into DIY backgrounds, your walkthrough is a godsend!


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## luvlylillaurz (Jul 22, 2011)

No worries! They're good fun to make really! Hopefully the plants don't take too long to start offering more places for the geckos to hide :2thumb:


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## DannyDee (Nov 5, 2008)

Nice work. 

I do love seeing naturalistic vivs.


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## KWIBEZEE (Mar 15, 2010)

Hi - good build - can I ask does your cyanea viv have amistking or similar installed? What size is the snake? What is the poop like with regards to the smell and it being difficult to rid of from a planted viv? Any photos? Cheers Ki.


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## luvlylillaurz (Jul 22, 2011)

Heya,

Yeah the mist system we use is the ENT one sold on dartfrog, but its very similar to the mistking :2thumb: we put in two nozzles for that tank sprayed morning and evening. The snakes about 3.5 - 4ft now, tank is 3ftx1.5ft.

We have dwarf tropical woodlice + springtails to help a bit with poop etc, but we still pick bits they can't deal with out. no more difficult really - we just have a soup spoon dedicated to the job! We will NEVER get that soup spoon mixed up back into the cutlery drawer!! (We need a vomit emoticon on here).

Can take some photo's if you like - what did you want to see?

Laura


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## SCOTT4545 (Feb 24, 2010)

Awesome lookin vivs I'm in the middle of doing one atm but I used cement on the foam and I'm unhappy with the way it looks tbh so was going to try this. What glue did u use to stick the Coca husk to the foam and where could I buy some?


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## luvlylillaurz (Jul 22, 2011)

I've no idea if we're allowed to say brands etc used on here? I'll pm you what we used just incase!

Laura


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## wagg (Feb 6, 2014)

Really nice. Looks good. Ive made a couple of backgrounds out of polysterine and grout. Im currently makeing a magnetic gecko cave out of expanding foam and grout. Hopefully it turns out well. And i think alot of people use silicone.


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## SCOTT4545 (Feb 24, 2010)

Ah right ok no worries cheers. Is the glue used in the same way as silicone sealant with the gun to apply it?


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## SCOTT4545 (Feb 24, 2010)

Just read the pm thanks! Did u brush the glue on or just used the gun an spread it with gloves? Sorry for all the questions lol your viv looks great and would love for mine to turn out as good


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## luvlylillaurz (Jul 22, 2011)

Wagg, the grouting that you've used - did you colour the grouting at all? We did a while back with paint, then sealed it over with varnish, but the end result looked shiny and just a bit.. processed.. how have you been doing yours and have you had any problems with colour running etc? If you have coloured it that is!

Scott4545, we used two different things - used a glue spreader in the noocks and crannys that fingers were too fat to get in to, then for the major areas, especially away from the wood etc, just used disposable gloves to mush it all around with fingers - lots quicker! No worries on the questions! We've always used other peoples threads, come up with ideas etc, and never documented how we did it.. so thought we should finally give some sort of walk through back to the community for others! So.. questions are fine lol : victory:

Laura


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## wagg (Feb 6, 2014)

Hi. Ye i put colour into the grout but it tends to use alot of paint so may not be the cheapest way. And i never had colour fade or anything. I use about 3/4 layers of grout but the final two are my base colour. Then built up the layers of different colours snd finally varnished them. I know what you mean about looking shiny. If you add a sprinkle of sand on the last coat of varnish it does help a lil bit but. This is my first one makeing it for a water/ humid viv as my other ones have been for my bearded dragon. So il do the same thing but add clear silicone at the end. If you go on youtube and what becky wheeler and lizard landscapes then youl see i got all my techniques from them. They are really good. And both different ways of doing it. Becky wheelers backgrounds is eayer to follow because shes in the uk so finding the equipment is easyer. And the grout doesnt have to be homebase it can be bnq, morrisons ect... w.e is cheaper. Hope this helps but im an ameture compeared to them lol if i can il try and post a pic of one i made. : victory:


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## wagg (Feb 6, 2014)

I had a look at your home page and it looked very good. Only looked at the crested gecjos that more up my street. Ruby is red lol i want to do some rhac breeding soon. Hopefully next year if all plans out well.


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## luvlylillaurz (Jul 22, 2011)

Heya,

Thanks, we haven't updated it for years.. facebook page is the one we keep up to date now!

Thanks for the tips - I'll have a look on youtube now!

Laura


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## SCOTT4545 (Feb 24, 2010)

Ideal thanks for your help will be defo goin down this route at some point but had a look at my build I'm doing atm and it's.not lookin to bad so I'm going to keep to my original plan for now lol but thanks very much for you help and info


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## SCOTT4545 (Feb 24, 2010)

Ideal thanks for your help will be defo goin down this route at some point but had a look at my build I'm doing atm and it's.not lookin as bad as I fought, so I'm going to keep to my original plan for now lol but thanks very much for you help and info


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## wagg (Feb 6, 2014)

Np. And ye defo check out those youtube videos. Lizards landscapes is pritty sick lol i thought about doing it this way eith the expandi g foam on the tank but you cant change it then once its done. Pros and cons of both ways  well hope it goes well keep me updated.


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## wagg (Feb 6, 2014)

.

That's one of the backgrounds I have made. it was out of polystyrene and grout. As you can tell its fro a desert theme so no silicone on it.


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