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Thread: ☆ Tail Care and Maintenance, The Official Thread ☆

  1. #21
    Senior Member Undisclosed Pod PearlieMae's Avatar
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    No more than the salt in the ocean... You are going to dilute and dissolve the baking soda in water enough just to deodorize your tail.

    *removed incorrect information*
    Last edited by PearlieMae; 09-26-2013 at 08:14 PM.

  2. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by PearlieMae View Post
    No more than the salt in the ocean... You are going to dilute and dissolve the baking soda in water enough just to deodorize your tail.

    I think that if you wanted to disinfect your tail to keep it from smelling or molding, use a VERY WEAK bleach and water solution. I mean no more than a quarter cup of bleach to a gallon of water, and rinse it with lots of clear water afterwards. Not sure if color-safe bleach will have the same disinfecting properties.

    If you don't want to risk bleach, use an isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and water solution to rinse inside your tail, always followed with lots of clear water.
    Ok now I'm confused.... XD I just want to do it right u know? So: Baking soda in small amouts is ok to clean the tail from clorene?

  3. #23
    Senior Member Undisclosed Pod PearlieMae's Avatar
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    Baking soda is one of the most gentle cleaners there is. a handful of baking soda dissolved in a bucket of water should be just fine.

  4. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by PearlieMae View Post
    I think that if you wanted to disinfect your tail to keep it from smelling or molding, use a VERY WEAK bleach and water solution. I mean no more than a quarter cup of bleach to a gallon of water, and rinse it with lots of clear water afterwards. Not sure if color-safe bleach will have the same disinfecting properties.

    If you don't want to risk bleach, use an isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and water solution to rinse inside your tail, always followed with lots of clear water.
    NEVER EVER USE BLEACH ON YOUR TAIL. EVER.

    Sorry, PearlieMae, but that is just something you never ever use on a tail. Those can do considerable damage to the base materials and certainly the paints. Rubbing alcohol is okay for full silicone tails, but only on small spots to kill mold.

    For you tail you want to use either very gentle cleaners (diluted vinegar or baking soda for example) or you want to use (harsher) cleaners specifically made for the materials it's made of (like sex toy cleaner made for silicone) so it won't damage anything.



    Quote Originally Posted by Ariel Starfish View Post
    For the baking soda thing.... My mom thinks it's not a good idea becouse it's salt and she's worried it would EAT and damage the tail. Any advice? Also; Is wetsuit cleaner good enough for getting bacteria out of a neoprene/silicone tail?
    As for baking soda being salt- yes it's sodium bicarbonate, a form of salt. But it's still a base- it's not acidic like sodium chloride (table and sea salt compound essentially). As a base, it's frequently used in chemistry as a wash to remove any acidic impurities- like chlorine. And really, would you rather have a very gentle benign form of salt on your tail that you can easily wash off with water after.. or acidic damaging chlorine which you can't remove completely with just water and can stay on/in the materials for weeks or even months after you swim, doing damage to the materials all the while?

    It's up to you, but that's my thought on it. Also Raven has approved baking soda baths for her tails- she actually commented on a photo of me explaining and showing a tail baking soda bath/soak and said, "wanna put this photo on the Care sheet! <3". So it's Raven approved ^_^

    Also if you don't want to use vinegar (1/2 & 1/2 vinegar and water) to disinfect your tail, wetsuit cleaner will work wonderfully for the inside of your tail Just be aware some divers use food grade silicone to condition their suits some times- so just make sure any cleaner or conditioner you use does not have any silicone in it. As far as I'm aware they don't put it in cleaner, but it's just good to be aware of it for when you're shopping to keep an eye out on the labeling.

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  5. #25
    Senior Member Undisclosed Pod PearlieMae's Avatar
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    Thanks for that! I was sure a very dilute solution would be fine unless your tail was made of silk or wool!

    I stand corrected!

    Iona, shall I remove my erroneous post so as not to confuse anyone?

  6. #26
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    Sex toy cleaner for silicone is best. Wetsuit cleaner for neoprene

  7. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by Winged Mermaid View Post
    NEVER EVER USE BLEACH OR RUBBING ALCOHOL ON YOUR TAIL. EVER.

    Sorry, PearlieMae, but those are just two things you never ever use on a tail. Those can do considerable damage to the base materials and certainly the paints.

    For you tail you want to use either very gentle cleaners (vinegar, baking soda for example) or you want to use (harsher) cleaners specifically made for the materials it's made of so it won't damage anything.





    As for baking soda being salt- yes it's sodium bicarbonate, a form of salt. But it's still a base- it's not acidic like sodium chloride (table and sea salt compound essentially). As a base, it's frequently used in chemistry as a wash to remove any acidic impurities- like chlorine. And really, would you rather have a very gentle benign form of salt on your tail that you can easily wash off with water after.. or acidic damaging chlorine which you can't remove completely with just water and can stay on/in the materials for weeks or even months after you swim, doing damage to the materials all the while?

    It's up to you, but that's my thought on it. Also Raven has approved baking soda baths for her tails- she actually commented on a photo of me explaining and showing a tail baking soda bath/soak and said, "wanna put this photo on the Care sheet! <3". So it's Raven approved ^_^

    Also if you don't want to use vinegar (1/2 & 1/2 vinegar and water) to disinfect your tail, wetsuit cleaner will work wonderfully for the inside of your tail Just be aware some divers use food grade silicone to condition their suits some times- so just make sure any cleaner or conditioner you use does not have any silicone in it. As far as I'm aware they don't put it in cleaner, but it's just good to be aware of it for when you're shopping to keep an eye out on the labeling.
    THANK YOU!!!!

  8. #28
    Senior Member Mermaid Syrena's Avatar
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    When looking for lubricant, sex toy cleaner (for tails) etc... is there an ingredient name I should be wary of? I mean, I know I should stay away from anything with "silicone" or "petroleum jelly" in the list of ingredients- but do those also have other names?
    User formerly known as "magickshewrote".

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  9. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by Mermaid Syrena View Post
    When looking for lubricant, sex toy cleaner (for tails) etc... is there an ingredient name I should be wary of? I mean, I know I should stay away from anything with "silicone" or "petroleum jelly" in the list of ingredients- but do those also have other names?
    When I used to work in a sex store, I noticed that silicone-based products were listed with the ingredients that made up the silicone (although this was just for lubricants... I never actually checked the cleaner because the cleaners usually listed straight on them "silicone safe" on their fronts).

    If you can get JO H2O lubricant, that's the one I suggest. It's pretty cheap, and it doesn't get sticky, it just dries up, so you won't feel icky in the tail. But you have to make sure it's the one with the blue label, and that it says H2O on it, because if it's black, it's silicone based, and if it's red, it's silicone based AND warming... Yeah, that wouldn't be good.

    Also, a lot of water-based lubricants will have glycerin in their ingredients lists, so when in doubt, check to see if there's glycerin listed. If there's glycerin, it's likely water based. (I've not yet seen a silicone based lubricant with glycerin in it, but I've learned to never say never... it might end badly for someone if I do)
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  10. #30
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    Yeah Jo H20 is silicone based, can't use anything silicone based on the silicone tails.... lol. I tried that one first before I knew anything. It didn't damage anything cuz I only used it once- but overtime...

  11. #31
    ehm... is it normal when; u give your tail a bath (including some baking soda) ...leave it there for 4 to 5 hours and when u come back to rhise the tail....there is NO MORE WATER...becouse of the salt.....

    Is this normal? I rhised it with clean water and now my tail hangs to dry.

  12. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by AniaR View Post
    Yeah Jo H20 is silicone based, can't use anything silicone based on the silicone tails.... lol. I tried that one first before I knew anything. It didn't damage anything cuz I only used it once- but overtime...
    It is? I know they market it as "feels like silicone" but my bottle of it doesn't have any of the silicone base materials listed, just water, glycerin, propyl and methyl parabens, and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose.

    Silicone lubricants (Like Jo Premium) are four or less ingredients instead of the 5+ usually used in waterbase; two of which are usually dimethicone and dimethiconol (some use only one or the other, but most use both) which is itself the silicone, and contain no water in the ingredients. (I just checked all my silicone lubes, lol, but yeah, none of them have water, and they all have dimethicone and/or dimethiconol)

    In retrospect I should have just not been so lazy and got up and done that the first time around, but it was 4 am, and I didn't want to make a bunch of noise digging around. Lol.
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  13. #33
    Heya everyone. So I just gave my tail a paint job this week and just got home from doing a birthday party. Tail looked great but the new paint flaked off BADLY. I used createx paint but was i supposed to prime the latex first to get oils off or something? Not sure what I did wrong but really want to fix before my trip to Jamaica next week!

  14. #34
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    it's a mertailor tail one of the older "realistic" ones right? that's unfourtunantly a known issue. All you can do is just keep repainting and heat setting it. it'll just keep peeling

  15. #35
    You do need to make sure to set it with a heat gun well, as it says in the original post. It helps if you rinse all the chlorine/dirt/salt water off before hand. If you have done that previously, just wipe the tail down with a damp cloth to make sure there isn't any dust on it and let it dry for a few minutes. But yeah, the paint will keep peeling. :/ Your tail will eventually get to the point where you have to repaint it every time you swim. That's why he switched to tin cure silicone with the pigment mixed in for his "realistic" tails.

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  16. #36
    Urg that stinks but at least I know where I went wrong; I missed the step with the heat gun. It gives me hope to be able to fix it again before this weekend; just need more paint.

  17. #37
    Senior Member Euro Pod Yulia's Avatar
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    You say that a boot dryer is a good tool for a tail, but the boot dryer we have blows warm air, is that good/bad?

  18. #38
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    I think maybe they'd only be good for fabric or neoprene tails. too much heat on silicone= bad

  19. #39
    Depends on how warm, but I'd stay away from it for silicone and (depending how how warm) neoprene. I posted those as there are some with "cool" settings that are safe to use Anything above that becomes "at your own risk".

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  20. #40
    Senior Member Mermaid Syrena's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Winged Mermaid View Post
    Depends on how warm, but I'd stay away from it for silicone and (depending how how warm) neoprene. I posted those as there are some with "cool" settings that are safe to use Anything above that becomes "at your own risk".
    Iona- I went ahead and ordered the PEET boot dryer you recommended, for my upcoming Finfolk silicone tail. It should be fine, right? (temp wise)
    User formerly known as "magickshewrote".

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