# Resin ornaments



## adrianf (Dec 10, 2010)

When I visited Brisbane before Christmas I bought resin 1/2 log to put in my tank but most of the color and the black lining as flaked off leaving the log almost all white. Is this common? If I buy a new one is their any way of making it color fast?
Before I put it in the tank I put it in bleach solution (50ml bleach 10 liters water) for about 5 mins and then rinsed the log under running water for around an hour. The color as taken around 6 weeks to go.

Adrian


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

If you buy another one of these, maybe skip the bleach step next time. It's just a wild guess, but bleach and dye usually don't go well together. You might have damaged some protective coating by bleaching the thing, or weakened the adhesion of the dye to the resin so that it came off in the water over the period of a few weeks.

Personally I prefer to use natural driftwood or rocks in preference to resin ornaments.

Best of luck!


----------



## adrianf (Dec 10, 2010)

Ok thanks I probably won't get another resin log and try to get a piece of driftwood instead. Unfortunately aquarium supplies are few and far between in my neck of the woods. We have one here in Roma and the next nearest is 300k away and they don't have much next one is 500k away which I can't get to very often.

Adrian


----------



## adrianf (Dec 10, 2010)

Decided to use a wirebrush and remove the remainder of the paint and then coat with aquarium safe silastic and dip in clean sand or small diameter gravel or both.

Adrian


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

What's the rock situation like in Roma, QLD? I pick up most of my aquarium decorations in the woods. With all the gum tress in Oz, you might only want to use wood that's been in water for some time, for example from near a creek or from the beach. Otherwise you could get gum tree oil in the water, and that might not be so good.

With rocks you want to make sure you don't use anything that contains minerals, which could leach metal ions in the water, but unless you are in a mining area, that's rarely an issue. I understand Roma is in the middle of a farming area. After some washing, the local rocks should be fine.


----------



## adrianf (Dec 10, 2010)

Rock around here is mainly sandstone with the occasional small area of volcanic rock. Yes we are in the middle of farming country but lately a lot of natural gas wells are being sunk so a lot of areas are being made "out of bounds". There are many barb wire fences going up as well. I will be doing a little bit of traveling this weekend about 1000 kilometers to mow our block of land so I will keep and eye out for likely rocks. Along the way is a couple of landscape businesses so will have a look and see what they have. Failing that I will make my own rocks.

Adrian
We are also in the middle of coal fields.


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

adrianf said:


> Rock around here is mainly sandstone with the occasional small area of volcanic rock. Yes we are in the middle of farming country but lately a lot of natural gas wells are being sunk so a lot of areas are being made "out of bounds". There are many barb wire fences going up as well. I will be doing a little bit of traveling this weekend about 1000 kilometers to mow our block of land so I will keep and eye out for likely rocks. Along the way is a couple of landscape businesses so will have a look and see what they have. Failing that I will make my own rocks.
> 
> Adrian
> We are also in the middle of coal fields.


Sandstone is good. Flat pieces generally work better to built caves and other types of structures than more rounded ones. Not everything that looks like an attractive rock by itself will be useful to create a rock pile, and many ordinary looking rocks can make fantastic building blocks. I got some sandstone delivered from a landscaping supply place to make my rock background. They are the ordinary sandstone that's lying around pretty much anywhere in Ohio. Hence they were cheap.


----------



## newforestrob (Feb 1, 2010)

thats an awesome background =D> ,its hard to make out the rocks in the last picture though


----------



## adrianf (Dec 10, 2010)

I went out and found some nice pieces of sandstone to decorate my aquarium. I tried to clean the rocks but by the time water ran clear the one piece I was cleaning broke apart and crumbled. Looking at the rest I think they will go the same way. The sandstone here is very soft and crumbly.
Back to the drawing board.

Adrian


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

What a shame! But better to find that out before you put them in the tank than after :thumb:


----------

