Creating a paludarium land mass

So the first of many expected issues has reared its head on my paludarium build. Turns out spray paint eats through polystyrene:amazed: so now my beautifully carved land mass is a simmering pile of white speckled goo. Option 1 smear my other section with silicone and spray that. Option 2 Sistafoam. Does anyone know if this is aquarium safe? Can it be spraypainted?

 

Hmmmmnnn.... That sux! Id just change to another brand of spraypaint - one with less volatile chemicals in....The one I used only very mildly ate at my poly - bought from Builders Warehouse - called "Spray Mate" (rainbow coloured tin with cap of corresponding paint colour - bout R40)
My deepest condolences with your scape melting dude - poly is a bitch to carve....
As for your last question - dont even know what Sistafoam is,so cant comment.....

 

Spray mate is the exact brand I used. Hmmmm I will have to try and find out a bit more about the foam thing

 

If this helps...Mine said "quick drying"...

 

Sista foam I believe is not fish friendly

Any emulsion based paint (i.e enamels and spray) will eat into poly. Rather use an epoxy based product.

 

Maybe it is the type of poly you used - got mine in 10cm thick pieces from Isolite... seem to remember that it was a semi fire retardent type or something....

 

@Zoom any ideas of what sort of product to use to paint my "rocks"

 

#FishRMan, I'm busy looking into an aquarium safe Sista type foam, I'll have to come back to you on that. I think if you "seal" the epoxy foam properly, concrete, you shouldnt have a problem?

Another thing... ANY type of solvent based anything CAN NOT be put onto polystyrene, it starts melting at it straight away.

What you could do, would be to cover the rock scape in silicone and try get your hands on some finely particled sand/gravel and roll it in that. I would recommend that you use acrylic (water based) paints on the background first and then cover it with the gravel, that way you won't see any white spots, or just paint it with acrylic paint to get the desired effect then you can seal it with a light coat of silicone, sprayed on.

BTW... Virtually nothing sticks to silicone, it is mainly used as a releasing/repelling agent, or for making moulds...

 

@Skye01 - then I must be a miracle worker with my paludarium hardscape.... spraypainted the sucker,washed it off in the shower - straight into tank...no probs...

The problem with the silicone/peat trick is that you tear your hair out the 1st few months fishing out little bits of peat from the aquarium part.... Drove me bonkers on a past build...

 

Ok so I have done some more tests. Chucked silicone on some poly and let it dry then used some spray paint on it. So far so good. Now to buy about a million bottles to smear over everything. I am going to do the peat thing on the dry portion of my land area. Hopefully it will help my terrestrial mosses root. My garden looks like we experienced some very isolated snow storms. Not too mention the fact that I keep finding bits of poly all over myself. I did find a toothbrush sized wire brush which has worked very well for getting a natural shape to the rocks.

 

Spray will not bond to silicon.Sorry

 

FishRman is now one sad panda. Any ideas for another option instead of poly? Any paints that could be submerged and wont eat through poly?

 

Dala Acrylic Craft paint - used this to touch up over my spraypaint and to cover areas I missed with the spraypaint - does not eat into poly at all...

 

@azurekoi how does this cope with being submerged? Im a little worried that the legs of my land section will have the paint peeling off after a month or so

 

@FishRMan - I've had zero problems with mine (but it is painted over the spraypaint....) - the bottle says that it is permanent and waterproof once dry... remeber that some other member uses it to make decorations for aquariums... for the love of little wet fishies just cant remember who - think he was from Durban though...

 

@azurekoi, yes you must be a miracle worker, because we tried all sorts of things and had plenty of probs. What type of poly did you use? Was it 'fire retardent'? Which it sounds like it might have been. What type of paint did you use? Waterbased paints work wonders on the poly, and you don't even need a 'primer' to be able to paint it on.

Please let me know, as I'm looking to do this as a scape for my 6ft. If I can find a better way of doing things it always helps.

 

@Skye01...lol - now for my next trick,i will attempt to walk on water.... SPLASH!

As I said earlier in thread,I do seem to remember the thick sheet I bought from Isolite was "fire retardent",but the back walls and waterfall area poly was just old bits and bobs lying about from a plasma screen and whatnot.
The spray paint DID eat into the poly a bit,maybe reducing it by 1mm or so,but didnt melt it at all - Go look in my paludarium thread - there are some close ups of the painted poly there - you'll see what I mean...

Will post a pic of the tin of spraypaint later when home from work...

 

@azurekoi, So what's the water like.... hehehe

Thanks for the info. Yes we also experimented using acetone and it 'eats' into the poly causing some of the most amazing designs I've seen. Put it into a bottle first and then spray on lightly and a little more where you want more interesting crags.

I will go check out your thread regarding your paladarium, thank you.

@Zoom, I'm sure I said that same thing a few posts ago. Put silicone on and then roll it around in some fine sand or gravel and touch up where necessary. BUT if you are wanting to paint it, use only WATER BASED paints, you get some beautiful colours if you go to a craft shop and they come in little bottles. THEN use a diluted form of silicone and spray over as a sealing agent.

Well these are only suggestions, and it's up to you to experiment with everything yourself till you find something that works...:bigsmile:

 

Im beginning to think that spraypaints silicone and poly are not man made items we understand but rather some mystical compounds which react in unique and exciting ways. First azurekois magical non poly eating spray paint now followed by my non non stick silicone. I dumped it in the pool all of yesterday and everything stayed on. Seeing that Zoom knows what he is talking about I figured that maybe some abrasion was required so I gave it a bit of a rub down and it was all still good. Still scheming I should do some more testing I tossed it in the shower and sprayed it down even holding the shower head on it to add some really force and still nothing. So thorougly vexed by my new discovery of non non stick silicone I decided to take a shower with my land mass. Hot water and soap failed to remove any paint? Left it in there for the rest of the family to shower with and still no removal of the paint. I still plan on not using this because after a few months it may just come off so now chances but just finding this all quite weird

 

@FishRMan - Paludarium builds do funny things to what we once thought we may have known about aquascaping... lol