Thanks for the pics. They really help to understand the process.
I think I need to make a few myself and ditch the flagstone I'm using.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

That looks great!
Very creative!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

That is great! I can't wait to see it once you go through the grout process. How many colors are you planning to use and will you go dark to light or light to dark?

Great work!

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~~Steph

"This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world." John Steinbeck

The first ones were only one color of grout, and a granite spray paint in a slightly lighter color. I might use a lighter color as well this time. I'm very undecided about it.

Kriminaal: keep the flagstone, just use some of it in with the foam when you make the cliffs. I used some pieces to form a cave top in one and a over hang ledge on the other of the first ones I made.

Depending on the coloration of your stone, you could try to match/blend it so it looks even more realistic. You could use the dominant color or a complimentary color of grout for your cliffs if you want so the stone pops out more. I got this idea from the dendro forum I joined, those guys make some fantastic rocks and backgrounds. If you think mine look realistic you should check out this one DendroBoard.com • View topic - 60 Gallon construction
If he hadn't shown the step by step I don't think anybody would believe those were fake.

I just checked out page one of the DendroBoard link... that's a nice how-to. There's another great thread about using foam and mortar, but it's not as easy to follow. You have to read the entire thread as "oh yea..." bits keep popping up for more suggestions. I really like his explanation of how to neutralize the formation using vinegar. I hadn't read that anywhere else. I'll have to read the rest of the thread when I have some time. Thanks for posting the link!

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~~Steph

"This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world." John Steinbeck

They have some really great ideas in there but it takes some time to fish thru all the posts, and like you said some do the "oh yeah.." bits an awful lot, while with others you sort of scratch your head trying to figure out how it went from one step to the next. I went thru alot of the forums how to sections and looked for ones that used great stuff foam to see how they did theirs and if I thought it would work for what I wanted to do. I'll post some of the other ones if you'd like,or pm them to you.

Yea, PM the links to me.

Thanks!

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~~Steph

"This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world." John Steinbeck

for those of you curious about how the original cliffs were made I decided to make a smaller set, and took pictures today to give you an idea of how I did it. As you can see, I made a frame/base using corplast and glass this time, and yes I'm reusing the glass. I'm pretty sure the corplast will release from the foam fairly easy but if not I'll just cut it off like I'm going to have to do to the glass bottom. What you see already sprayed is a base layer. I'll add a real piece of slate/shale over the open area, if I'd thought of this earlier I could have even used a tile instead of the glass as the base. Then the process is really the same as for the moist hide.

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Very informative. I think for my next froggie tank, I'm going to be adding some fake rock as well as bark and eco-earth with great stuff. Great ideas. Thanks.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

While skipping thru another forum on the weekend, one member was using binder, peatmoss, and vermiculite instead of silicon and eco earth pressed into it. He said it worked for him, and of course now I can't find it. I don't know what kind of critter you've got but here's another detailed how to..29 gallon journal - Vivarium Forums
DIY - Aquarium Background
DendroBoard.com • View topic - Making Fake Rocks (sorry if it starts back at beginning of thread,page 2 bout half way down is what's interesting). I get bored easy with tv and I'm not into bar scene anymore, so I like to read and get ideas for my own tanks.

OOPS, need to have glasses checked, you got frogs check out dendroboard, its pretty much all frogs and such.