10g FBT Paludarium tips

[jlennon]

I am so full of questions, I dont want to ruin my project and have to start over...

What grit of sandpaper should I get, I don't want too oversand or undersand. Is drywall paper better than standard and wet/dry sandpaper for this use?

If I use Krylon fusion paint what is the curing time, and should it be coated to protect when exposed to water, or is there no leaching involved...

I want the textured fusion paint, they have black, sand white, graphite, coco brown, forest green and silver. Heres what they look like:




Not sure if I even need to use textured, sanding the skin may add a texture by itself, I'm not sure, but I will find out. I will sand it all before deciding on paint.

Also what colors if any should be used for the fungus look... its been colored by the sun, its a medium yellowish color now and not the light yellowish color when it was first dried.

[froggsong]

For the fungus color, I'd look at some pictures and decide what color you like best and try to imitate it. The real fungus I have in my native frog tank is dark dark red (almost brown now), sort of the color of dried blood, and a creamy color, with little bits of it that are an orange color.

As for the curing time, I'd just go with what it says on the can, then add some extra time if it makes you feel better about it (just make sure you can't smell it anymore). I put my topper back on as soon as I couldn't smell it anymore, and it's been fine.

Now, my topper doesn't have water running down it, and it isn't submerged, so I can't say about leaching into water, but I do spray it regularly so that the foam can absorb water and help with humidity, and I am glad I didn't coat it with something water tight so that I am able to do this. I DID spray it with a matte finish clearcoat, but that's about it.

Ok, on to sandpaper. The drywall sandpaper comes in one grit, as far as I've seen. It is BY FAR better than regular or wet/dry sandpaper. The mesh keeps it from getting clogged as you sand. You can even use it to carve with and all that good stuff. I LOVE it.

As for the texture, the foam with be textured. Definitely sand it first before yo0u decide on paint. The coco brown one you pictured above might work for the tree bark part, but I don't think I would use it alone. I didn't like the brown stone-look paint I used, it just didn't look realistic at all. Also, you are proabbly going to want a base coat of a solid color, that way you get better coverage with the textured paint. I recommend a darkish brown for the tree bark part, and maybe a cream or sand color for the mushroom part.

Remember, if you don't like the way it turns out, you can always paint it again (you can either sand the paint off again, or paint on top of it).

If you want to utilize the natural color of the foam for the mushroom part (the orange is very similar to the color of some fungi I have seen growing on trees), you can expose it to UV light to darken it further, faster. If you don't have access to a UV lamp, you can put it inside something white with an open top in direct sunlight (white is best at reflecting UV rays).

[jlennon]

Wow, thanks for all the tips! Its making this idea even better than my brick one! I will definately have to pick up some of that drywall sandpaper after work tonight.

The idea I'm having is the back will be brown in color, and above water the background might be coated with some of my cocofiber/husk substrate mix to look like bark of a tree. I might even just paint it instead of using any substrate background. It will all depend what it looks like after sanding it. If there is a good enough pattern to it, I might even be able to put some ridges in it to look like the actual grain pattern in bark, I dunno I'm getting way ahead of myself.

Yellows and oranges for the fungus sounds great, I don't think it would be very easy to mix the two with actual spray paints so that may have to be acrylic paints.

Here is pic of a huge fungus i searched and found. Similar to the color my foam is currently, maybe a little lighter in color, but close...



Hopefully I can actually start some sanding tonight, but more likely tomorrow will work. I have some compressed spaghnum moss that I have no idea what I will be using it for. I bought it before I even decided to make a background. If I dont paint the upper part, maybe I can mix it with the cocofiber to look decent, like moss growing on the tree...

I have enough info to get started and should have some pics up in a few days of my progress...

[beckdg]

krylon fusion should be completely safe under water. people use it in their reef tanks from time to time... for bulkheads and such.

[froggsong]

I saw that pic too. Awesome, isn't it? I would love to try to replicate that, but I'm not sure if I can, lol... All I can do is try, right?