10g FBT Paludarium tips

[jlennon]

My water pH is very high to start with, so are you suggesting the limestone will actually lower the pH of my water? I do have pH test kits since I have an aquarium.

What is the suggested pH for the FBTs? My water has a high pH of 8.2 so if this lowers the pH even by 2, it would probably be more toward the pH the fire bellies would be accustomed to in their natural habitat.

Anyways, I finished spray foaming, and went a little overboard. It was my first time so I guess it probably is the norm to use too much. When its done curing I will have a hell of a time carving it!

Here's the shot of my foam overkill - lots of work will be done to make it into the background I want.

[beckdg]

limestone will raise it. it's alkaline right now but you'll want it neutral/acidic for the toads.

[jlennon]

Ok, once everything it carved and painted and dry I will have to seal it, I don't need my pH going any higher than it already is.

[froggsong]

You'll do well adding some fresh wood to your water area as well to help keep the pH where it should be when you add new water (the tannic acid lowers the pH). I say fresh because it will lower it more quickly as the tannins begin to leach. IME, the toads prefer slightly soft water, so if the tannins lower the pH more than enough to get it to 7, it should be just fine.

I like your BG, that's going to look very nice when it goes in. I hope you don't carve it down too much! It has a very organic, tree fungus type feel to it. Can't wait to see what you do with it.

[jlennon]

Tree fungus? I guess it does look like fungus growing everywhere! lol, I was going to make a brick undewater theme but I'm not sure if I should proceed since the limestone will raise my pH.

Any ideas involving this fungus look? Like how would I make this look like roots or fungus or whatever...

[froggsong]

If you do a google image search for tree fungus, you'll get an idea of what some of them look like (look through lots of images till you find one that's similar to what your BG looks like as is). I don't think you'd have to do much at all, honestly. Make the top look like tree bark, then make the parts at the bottom that wouldn't be part of the fungus look like bark too. You wouldn't have to carve the "shelf" part of the BG at all, it already looks perfectly like a fungus.

There's also a thread here on the forum where a member made tree fungi from GS and put them into the BG. I'll have to see if I can come up with a link to that for you.

[jlennon]

Interesting, I will have to think about that. I have a bag of jungle bedding I got from petsmart, which lookes like a mix of cocofiber and husks mixed together. It might do well as the background, and have the shelf as is simulating a large fungus shelf, and paint the underwater background with some brown and black acrylic paint instead of the concrete as to not increase the pH of the water.

So should I leave the leg supports I have as fungus tendrils or paint as roots?

[froggsong]

Use the column parts (i'm assuming that's your legs) as the bottom of the fungus, and the parts that don't stick out, do them brown so they'll look like the tree bark. Other than carving the lower parts that will be the tree, I don't think you need to do anything other than sand the skin of the GS and paint it with acrylic paints. Heck, you could even just sand the lower parts as well and paint them as well. The texture you have there looks a bit like bark, and I don't think you'd have to do much to get it just right.

[jlennon]

Can't wait to get things started... I will stop by Michael's later and look at their selection of acrylic paints and pick out some colors. Maybe it will stop raining so I can actually make some progress!

Also wondering, are spray paints even viable in any setups? I'm not sure of the toxicity etc, but I saw some Krylon paint that is textured for painting on plastic. There was a brown color that looked grainy and thought it would be nice. But I'm not sure if anyone has attempted using any types of spray paints..

[froggsong]

I have used Krylon fusion paints. They are the ones for plastics. They work wonderfully. If you look here: https://www.vivariumforum.com/communi...te-topper.html, you can see in the last pics what my BG looks like that I used the paint on.

It's very important when painting that you remove the outer skin on the foam, otherwise the paint won't stick well and will easily rub off. The best way to do this is with drywall sandpaper. It's like mesh with sand glued to it. I usually cut it into hand sized pieces and gently rub it over the foam to remove the skin and smooth any areas that I have carved. The foam that is directly under the skin has far smaller bubbles, so it makes the perfect surface for the paint. Buy more than you think you'll need, remember that the foam is essentially a sponge once the skin is gone. I recommend getting a couple of complimenting colors to make it look more realistic. Also, practice the spray pattern on something first to get the hang of it and see what sorts of textures and patterns you can make with the two colors. Buy a small sponge brush and a small bristle brush. You can dampen the sponge brush a little (squeeze out the excess water) to make a wash effect where you want the paint a little thinner. The bristle brush you'll use dry to add texture and blend colors. You can look up "dry brushing techniques" for more info. A rag or a small natural sponge would be good to use to add texture as well. (If you want a little paint to dip the sponge or rag into, you can spray a heavy layer onto a foam plate or something that won't absorb the paint.)

Just be sure when you buy your paints that you don't get tempted into buying anything that is not for plastics (I can't recommend anything other than the Krylon Fusion paints), other than some of the stone-look paints (they are ok because they don't have the solvents that regular spray paints have, that's to keep the bits of different colors that make it look like stone from dissolving). Stay away from anything that's not a matte finish, unless you are going to use a matte finish clearcoat. (Honestly, and clear sealer should be fine over the paint and not melt your foam, but do a test piece first, one on bare foam and one on painted foam, just to be sure). If you can't find a matte finish clearcoat or don't like the colors that come in matte, you can sprinkle a little fine sand on the last coat of paint to reduce the gloss. I don't recommend using white sand. If you do that, after the paint dries, use your bristle brush to scrub some of the excess sand away so that the BG isn't too rough.

Anyway, let me know if you have any more questions.