Paver base background?

[Hybridfish7]

I'm making a background (for a reptile tank) out of foam boards and spray foam, and was wondering if paver base had any chemicals or anything in it.
My plan is to coat the thing in silicone once I form the background, and then dust said silicone with the paver base to give a rocky, gritty texture. The main thing I saw people having problems with was paver sand or paver base buffing the pH too much. That and the fact that paver sand has an agent that solidifies it when wet. However I'm pretty sure paver base is just crushed up concrete and limestone, so any thoughts?

 

[Johnez]

Crazy, I was searching this very thing. I'm wondering if I can somehow get build a resin background and coat it with paver. Maybe I'll have to do it in reverse, build a paver "base" and then epoxy over it, leaving the epoxy side inside hollow for filter/heater/whatever and paver outside for appearance.

From what I read, concrete raises pH crazy high, and takes forever to stabilize, but eventually it WILL stabilize. I'm not any authority tho.

 

[Hybridfish7]

So basically it is safe for a reptile background? I mean the only reason I can assume it raises pH is because of how fine the limestone particles in it are
But then again that won't matter in a dry setup

 

[aaronhas]

I used quikrete mortar mix for my backgrounds. coating it in silicon and then dusting it was cost prohibitive ($5 for 80lbs vs $90 for enough silicon) works great to add texture to small areas but painting it over the whole area was a no go. that being said paver base should be inert