# DIY water pool help



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Hi guys, 

I've been wanting to make my boa's cage more attractive for a while, cardboard boxes are fine but don't last long what with humidity and a generally destructive boa.

Anyway I decided I wanted to make a pile of rocks for a hide and a matching water dish, this is my inspiration.

http://www.hawaiipictureoftheday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/hana-rainforest-waterfall-wm.jpg

So after doing a bit of research I raided the loft for polystyrene, created absolute havoc, with white stuff getting everywhere, sliced my fingers several times and ended up with this.










I had a few issues, because as it's packaging and in some places hollow, it's not always as easy to make the shape as big or as round as I would have liked ( I also am sure this is going to make it an absolute nightmare to grout) but I don't think it's all that bad for a first attempt.


It should be noted I am not in any shape or form artistic and as such this might be a total disaster.

Anyway the main reason is to ask what you think I should seal it with, have searched quite hard but can't find many examples of this time of project with products available in the UK.

I think, the plan is to unibond sealant to stick the pieces together. Then use white grout and colour it to grey with black acrylic paint, and use more paint to add detail. My main concern is about sealing the part containing water, the best solution I've come up with is g4 pond sealer over the whole thing, and possible a coat of silicon sealant over the water area ( but this might be over kill)

Anyone got any thoughts or advice, especially in regard to getting a smooth finish, more of the guides I've read suggest adding sand etc to give texture, but obviously that's not the look I'm going for.


----------



## Cragterharris (Jan 14, 2013)

Looks fantastic, would love to be able to make something like this


----------



## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

Shrimply said:


> Anyway the main reason is to ask what you think I should seal it with, have searched quite hard but can't find many examples of this time of project with products available in the UK.
> 
> I think, the plan is to unibond sealant to stick the pieces together. Then use white grout and colour it to grey with black acrylic paint, and use more paint to add detail. My main concern is about sealing the part containing water, the best solution I've come up with is g4 pond sealer over the whole thing, and possible a coat of silicon sealant over the water area ( but this might be over kill)
> 
> Anyone got any thoughts or advice, especially in regard to getting a smooth finish, more of the guides I've read suggest adding sand etc to give texture, but obviously that's not the look I'm going for.


it's looking good.

With the sealing; i think it's Lizardlandscapes, they have videos on youtube of their waterfalls. When it comes to sealing they just smear aquarium sealant over the water areas. 
with the smooth finish, you could try sanding the grout with a fine sand paper when it's done?


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Thanks, 

Yeah I've watched the lizard landscape guide, the problem is the sealer they use under the silicon isn't really available here.

So I wanted to find a waterproof sealer to coat the whole thing in ideally, lots of people use polyvine, but as far as I can tell it has no waterproofing properties, it's just the protection it gives.

The thing is G4 is supposedly totally waterproof, if I used that silicon might not be needed at all. Just looking for opinions and options really. Clearly making sure it's safe is my main concern.

And yeah, hadn't really considered sanding down the grout, that sounds like a sensible idea haha


----------



## tomcannon (Jan 2, 2008)

Shrimply said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I've been wanting to make my boa's cage more attractive for a while, cardboard boxes are fine but don't last long what with humidity and a generally destructive boa.
> 
> ...


The process you've described is fine. You're right about G4 and silicon sealant being a little overkill. One or the other will be fine. :2thumb:


----------



## fatlad69 (Oct 22, 2009)

You could try this http://www.plastidip.co.uk/eStore/index.cfm?type=Home_Solutions/PlastiDip&stage=1 . They do it in clear and is used in aquariums so should work.


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Excellent guys, well I'll keep you updated how it goes, going to do some sticking together today if I have time.
Made the decision to try to seal up any hollow bits with extra polystyrene too. which should reduce the surface I need to grout and make it easier to do.

Unless anyone has any reason not too I'll just go with G4 , can get it for £9 from aquatic warehouse and I have £4 worth of points with them.
I presume 500g should be enough to do what I want?


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Thought I'd post an update of today's progress, I basically filled in the hollow rocks with sheets of polystere as I said I was going to, stuck together some of the small pieces that complete the two bottom pieces of the hide, and stuck together the basis of the pool.

I think I got a little bit over excited with the sealant and filled small gaps which would of been easier done with the grout, but no harm done I guess. I'm pretty pleased with progress so far, and no blood today so that's a plus.


----------



## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

Are you making it a car ^^^ :gasp:


----------



## fatlad69 (Oct 22, 2009)

Meko said:


> Are you making it a car ^^^ :gasp:


That's what I thought!:lol2:


----------



## ch4dg (Jul 24, 2008)

Meko said:


> Are you making it a car ^^^ :gasp:


i think its weights to hold it together while it dries


but as already said, G4 pond sealer


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Took me embarrassingly long to work out what you were getting at with the care :blush:

Anyway I think I finished my initial structure, took ages trying to make to look how I wanted, not sure if I got there or not. Decided I'd just get frustrated trying to stick the main structure together with sealant so used hot glue instead. Might squirt some sealant into the nooks and cranies to make sure it holds.

Here it is, let me know what you think


----------



## fatlad69 (Oct 22, 2009)

Coming along nicely!


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Thanks, 

My grout arrived today :2thumb:

So I'm playing with that, I only ordered 1.5kg of powdered stuff thinking from what I'd read that it would be enough, but I think I was wrong lol.

I dunno if you guys want regular updates about what I'm doing, but I like reading these threads where you get to see stuff coming along step by step and you can decide which bits were a good idea and which weren't.

IN any case I've started with a thick grout mix to finish modelling the rocks, trying to make them look a bit rounder, filling larger gaps and rounding flat edges etc. 

I'm also trying to fill in gaps in the hide structure so that I don't have a nightmare trying to get more watery grout into the nooks and cranies later on. But this is hard to do while trying to keep the thing looking like individual rocks. Anyway will post pictures later once I'm done for the day


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Well here you go, not sure you can see much difference really but I think it looks marginally better. It will be ready for its first full coat of grout tomorrow. Kind of excited to see what it looks like when it's a uniform colour and not white lol.


----------



## JonnyFrilledDragonLawson (Oct 26, 2012)

looks good to me


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Hey so first layer of grout is on, and I had issues getting the colour I wanted and mixing the same colour twice... so it's pink :gasp:

So i'm not using red paint anywhere near it again lol


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Mistake number 2 - Black food colouring is not a cheap alternative to acrylic paint 

They're purple :lol2:










I mean I think they looks kinda funky, butI really hope I achieve grey with the next coat. Sadly though I'm out of grout, so can't do any more until that arrives.


----------



## JonnyFrilledDragonLawson (Oct 26, 2012)

i wouldnt worry about trying to achieve a grey with grout, just fully paint them with acrylic to however you want before sealing them


----------



## my_shed (Jan 5, 2011)

Shrimply said:


> Mistake number 2 - Black food colouring is not a cheap alternative to acrylic paint
> 
> They're purple :lol2:
> 
> ...


I know pictures don't always show true to life, but that actually looks like you've achieved a much more natural look to your rocks by accident, than most of us manage with hours of painting, spraying, colouring, texturing etc! It may be a bit overpoweringly purple, but all i'd suggest is a watered down black acrylic paint applied over the whole thing to sink into the crevices, and shadows, and maybe a slightly thicker brown acrylic paint wash to give it a slightly earthier tone. Slightly different shades on different rocks might look good. If you do go on to achieve grey grout, it'll end up looking like concrete, trust me, I speak from experience!! And you won't need loads of coats of grout for a boa, it's not like having a beardie scrabbling all over it with their claws.

Dave


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Thanks guys, 

Well the reason I'm attempting to colour the grout is that white acrylic paint isn't cheap. And since the grout is white anyway hopefully colouring it will lead to a more natural appearance.

Dave I appreciate your input, cause I'm a mere novice who is not in anyway artistic. My theory is that is I keep adding really thin layers of grout of slightly different colours then I'll achieve the overall sort of mottled look automatically just because the grout is different thickness in different places and effected by the colours underneath and once it's sanded down the colours should fade together more naturally. The plan is another two layers of grout hopefully grey (or maybe light brown on your advice) of difference shades which should counteract the purple.

I agree the rocks don't look bad, although the are more purple in reality, but hey you get purple rocks . I guess that's the good thing about it, providing I don't make them totally ridicules colours they should look OK.

And I take on board what you are saying about darkening the crevices and the watered down black is something I wouldn't have cottoned onto, but yeah it would look daft if I darkened the crevices with pure black and not just a shade of the rest of the rocks.


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

SO, an update - the reason this has taken so long is basically because I :censor: it up, big time, and the thing very nearly went in the bin.

So last time you saw it, it was purple, I the proceeded to add another coat which was supposed to be light brown, but the thing went pink again . At this point i decided this was enough grout ( it probably wasn't but we'll get to that). To counteract the pink I decided a coat of really watered down green acrylic might sort it out. It didn't, it went green.

At this point I decided I needed to sand it down anyway, so that would probably take most of the green back off. The problem was my grout was obviously too thin, so I kept sanding back down to polystyrene. Which meant mixing more grout, repairing these areas, letting it set, then sanding the new areas down, at which point i usually hit polystyrene again. So you can imagine the vicious cycle. Anyway by the point I finally managed to get it all grouted the thing was now a combination of green, pink and white. Really not the look I was going for. So I mixed up some "brown" paint to cover the whole think it. Which again dried purple ( Notice a common theme here)










At this point it sat around for quite a while, because it looked, well awful. I had no idea how I was going to make it look decent and it felt like a lot of wasted time.

Today though I had a brain wave and coated the whole think is a 50/50 mix of white emulsion and water. The result, I'm really happy with, not sure the pictures totally do it justice but it's much more the sort of mottled ****** grey look I wanted. I've not totally finished yet, going to get some black paint into the gaps and I think i'm going to paint the inside black to make it more safe and secure. But I'd love comments and suggestions. My only concern is that it's more fragile than I expected ( I'm guessing this is my fault) but if I bash it or anything the grout does just crack away and fall off


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Not a single comment, praise or criticism, well gee thanks guys.

Hoping to get some black paint today but it would be nice to get some feedback on the stuff I asked in the previous message and any thoughts on how I can improve it.

If not I'll just blunder on lol


----------



## fatlad69 (Oct 22, 2009)

If you coat it in a clear epoxy resin it will toughen it up.

Adam


----------



## Spikebrit (Oct 23, 2006)

I think it looks really good. 

When you add the black use a technique called dry brushing. Add a little blakc to a brush and then wipe most of it off on a board, then with the lightest about brush this over certain areas of the rock and its adds depth and realism. 

if it's braking every time you touch it, then i would suggest you may need more grout, and as a point for next time, dont be afraid the leave the grout as is, rather the rubbing it down. I use a brich and when i apply it give it a steapling effect but flicking it with the brush.

jay


----------



## Rammy (Feb 3, 2013)

I have just read through your thread for the first time and I think it looks great. I really like your last picture. The rocks look very realistic.
Well done!

Dave


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Thanks people, not got my paint get will let you know when I do. Really nervous about ruining the appearance now it looks kinda decent.

Next time I'll definitly use more grout but I don't really want to have to start again now if I can help it. And I sanded it to get the rounded and smooth like rocks eroded in the water. I wouldn't think i'd be able to achieve that without sanding, but I didn't totally understand what you meant so maybe it's too technical for me.

Hmm, what's the deal with epoxy resin. It seems expensive, how much would I need?. And would it be suitable to cover the water dish too, or would I still need to use pond sealant on that?
I'm kinda nervous about using it it from what I've read it seems kind of dangerous, does look like it would give an ideal strong finish though.


----------



## fatlad69 (Oct 22, 2009)

Shrimply said:


> Thanks people, not got my paint get will let you know when I do. Really nervous about ruining the appearance now it looks kinda decent.
> 
> Next time I'll definitly use more grout but I don't really want to have to start again now if I can help it. And I sanded it to get the rounded and smooth like rocks eroded in the water. I wouldn't think i'd be able to achieve that without sanding, but I didn't totally understand what you meant so maybe it's too technical for me.
> 
> ...


It is ideal for the water bowl as it gives a tough waterproof finish. You probably wouldn't need that much to cover your decor and I have found it pretty easy to use. As an alternative but not much cheaper try plastidip. It's a rubberised paint that has multiple uses including sealing concrete for ponds. It comes in a range of matt finishes including clear. I have just used it on my viv background and its great.

Adam


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

So I added the black shading and painted the inside of the structure blck and this is the result, the picture makes it look like I've over done the black but i don't think I have really. I'm debating if I should add any shading to the pool to make it look like its composed of separate rocks or just more realistic. I'm not at all artistic so find adding realistic shading difficult lol, but suggestions are more than welcome.










I'm really tempted by epoxy resin, I don't want to ruin allmy work but if it would make a much more solid and long lasting decor then it seems like a good idea, especially if its safe for use submerged once it's cured.
Anyone got any suggestions on what stuff to get and at a sensible price?

Maybe this stuff would so?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Water-Clear...7WTM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1361532172&sr=8-4


----------



## Shrimply (Dec 17, 2012)

Any thoughts?


----------



## fatlad69 (Oct 22, 2009)

I get my epoxy from here Miscellaneous Price List although it is probably more than you will need. Stu in the phib section uses epoxy on all his rocks here is the thread http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/amphibians/589598-da-dart-room-n-shed.html it will take you a while to find it but its well worth the read.

Adam


----------



## mrandmrsk (Nov 28, 2009)

i use epoxy resin on the floors of my kennels its going to make it easier to clean and it will dry hard... 

looks really good! very clever 

cheri


----------

