# Trying out Sculpey caves



## brion0

Ive put some large caves made of Fimo an Sculpy in tanks. The only thing I noticed, my pleco would rasp on it,an pry ate a little. Though it didnt seem to hurt his health.


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## RandomKayos

Sculpy/Fimo and the rest are PVC. They pose no threat to your tanks, water or flora/fauna as long as they have been cured. The only two possible points of worry are not curing, some feel the suspension liquid used in these polyclays may be harmful, or mixing in a harmful material during the creation process.

We have many polyclay decorations in our theme tanks. A trick I use to help make things look a little more natural is to mix sand with the clay and form from there. Experiment with dark and light sand in the same color clay to get a great marble effect.


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## Sixwing

Thanks a bundle, brion0 and RandomKayos! That's what I want to know!

While I'll continue to watch those pond snails, I will certainly make the new decorations. Will have to try that sand trick. Which means I'll have to find some black sand. *s* 

Oh.. the snails were cruising around happily this morning, too.
4 on caves, 1 on glass, 1 on Java fernlet.


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## crabcake

you can also mold nice structure with cement. 

by purchasing straight Portland cement you can experiment with many different aggregate materials and also tints. with some practice you can make pieces that look just like real rocks.

reef aquarists have done quite a bit with this idea to make artifical live rock.

try a search for "hypertufa". 

concrete aggregate rocks need to be fully cured in a water bath before introduction to aquarium.


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## Sixwing

Wow!

There's some neat hypertufa projects out there. It seems to be used for very large, thick-walled projects, and also be very messy, so I won't be able to do that this time... the aforementioned very cold weather and lack of garage mean that anything I do, I do inside. 

When I've got my own garden again, look out, containers.  Could make some truly cool custom pieces that way.


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## Sixwing

I'm calling this a success. On advice that these are safe, I put one of my test caves in the quarantine with the loaches. Two days later, one of them (and maybe two) are using it regularly - though the third one does not seem to fit. The final product will be larger, though, so they can all get in at once. 

Thanks!


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## Hilde

So what happened? Pics?


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## Guest

I would love to see them as well.


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## bigboij




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## Cuka

*Thank you!!!*

I have tried a few DIY options. Namely, the PVC pipe cave - this is where you heat one end of a PVC pipe by putting it in boiling water, put it in a clamping device to crimp the end and this creates a pleco cave. I made two of them and both are untouched by my longfins in my current setup setup. They could care less about the other DIY options I threw in there too - coffee cups, slate/tile caves and such. Whether these options are too smooth - even though I did scrape the inside of the PVC cave to give some texture - or perhaps too light in color I don't know. My longfins only seem to like one pottery type pleco cave I picked up off Kensfish a few years back. They fight over it ferociously. Ken's fish has been sold out for a little while so I was looking for something that I could use to create one of the same looking/feeling type of caves that they current squabble over. There was so little literature on the web That I am glad someone posted this. Thank you for your research and the time you took in reporting your water chemistry testing results. Thanks to everyone else who added their experience with using this product as well. =)


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## lunatikchik

I'm about to start construction on a sculpey clay castle
Do i need to put the glaze on it or leave it unglazed for a fish tank (freshwater - plecos, gupppies, glofish & pictus cats & plants) 
TIA


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## Mikeygmzmg

bigboij said:


>


bahhahaha


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## mistergreen

lunatikchik said:


> I'm about to start construction on a sculpey clay castle
> Do i need to put the glaze on it or leave it unglazed for a fish tank (freshwater - plecos, gupppies, glofish & pictus cats & plants)
> TIA


You can't glaze it like real pottery.
It should be fine unglazed. It's the same material as pvc. Oven bake gets rid of the chemical that keeps it soft.


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## Jenyffer

Hi, i have a questio, did you happen to use colored polymer clay? i was wondering if i were to paint (using acrylic) the polymer clay and seal it with sculpey sealer of some sort, if that would be okay for the turtles?


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## Darkblade48

Jenyffer said:


> Hi, i have a questio, did you happen to use colored polymer clay? i was wondering if i were to paint (using acrylic) the polymer clay and seal it with sculpey sealer of some sort, if that would be okay for the turtles?


Oh my, this is quite an old thread. I hope you get some answers!


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## UntilRobotsReplaceUs

Jenyffer said:


> Hi, i have a questio, did you happen to use colored polymer clay? i was wondering if i were to paint (using acrylic) the polymer clay and seal it with sculpey sealer of some sort, if that would be okay for the turtles?


I was wondering the same. I realize this is a very old thread, but maybe the original poster or others above have some advice. I've heard that clear plasti dip to seal creations, including 3d printed items will work. What were you able to do? I'd love to see your creation if you made it.


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