Aquascaping Safety

[Eunen_de]

I want to make a paludarium and I've heard people talk about using styrofoam to build up areas or under big rocks for cushioning. I can already picture little bits of styrofoam floating in the water for the fish to snack on. I'm assuming that won't be good for them. So how do you prevent the styrofoam from flaking? All I could find was something about heat guns for smoothing carved pieces. Are you supposed to heat all the styrofoam you use? Wrap it in old pantyhose? Bury it deeply enough?

What works?

 

[Katchan]

Hi eunen, a hair dryer should work just as well as a heat gun, which are only used to smooth the outside of the styrofoam before concreteing it

try this link, scroll down to the alternative aquascaping ideas

http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_list.php

and check the aquarium background links

Katchan

 

[SPLiSH]

Maybe you could use pond sealant? You know, the stuff the use to eliminate leaks in ponds?

 

[nc_nutcase]

No clue on using Styrofoam in aquariums... but one little fact that may be helpful...

There are (at least) two 'kinds' of Styrofoam. One is kind of like millions of little balls adhered together... I wouldn't think you want to use this kind...

The other (often used as insulation) is more of a solid piece of foam. This will be much less likely to flake off into floating fish chokers.

If you read aquatic advice that counters this, trust them, not me

 

[Tropjunky]

nice pic nc
now i wouldn't use styrofoam but there are some products that so the same thing and anyways why do u need to use it?

 

[Torrean]

Go to the member's aquarium pictures and look a cold water pond tank. I used tupperwear to build up my gravel to make a land mass and it worked very well. I hope this helps. If you don't like the cave idea then you could fill the tupperwear with tank water and put a lid on it. THen use it like a building block under the substrate.

EDIT: Maybe you could find solid glass blocks or plastic ones they would work a lot better than tupper wear, and you don't have to worry about toxins or flaking poisonous fish treats

 

[Opcn]

if you want something that wont flake at all you could use expandable foam but you don't need to worry about fish snacking on the styrofoam, it doesn't taste very good and in nature all species of fish encounter undigestable debris, just take em ouyt as you see them and you will be fine