Painting canopy interior/back glass?

[Son Of Skyline]

I'm thinking of painting the inside of my canopy white and the back pane of glass a light blue. Does anybody have any suggestions on what type of paint I should use? Is regular bathroom/kitchen paint good enough for the canopy? I don't want to use the wrong paint and end up having it contaminate my tank. Thanks in advance :)

[Delphinus]

I used melamine paint for my first canopy. It worked OK but since it was particle board the board itself didn't hold up too well over time to the increased humidity. If I were to do that again I'd just go straight to a marine paint.

Just speculating here, but I think anything oil based will be OK for the inside of the canopy... Latex based may not hold up to the humidity over time. I think ultimately, your best bet will be a white marine paint (basically the paint you would use to paint a boat hull). Or maybe some kind of pool paint (?)

As for the light blue on the back of the tank ..... if you paint the outside of the tank then I doubt it really matters what kind of paint you use. Spray paint enamel maybe, or latex, or oil, or whatever you prefer to work with.

[Son Of Skyline]

Thanks Delphinus. Do you have any idea where I can get marine paint? Is it something I can just pick up at Home Depot or something?


Mason


I used melamine paint for my first canopy. It worked OK but since it was particle board the board itself didn't hold up too well over time to the increased humidity. If I were to do that again I'd just go straight to a marine paint.

Just speculating here, but I think anything oil based will be OK for the inside of the canopy... Latex based may not hold up to the humidity over time. I think ultimately, your best bet will be a white marine paint (basically the paint you would use to paint a boat hull). Or maybe some kind of pool paint (?)

As for the light blue on the back of the tank ..... if you paint the outside of the tank then I doubt it really matters what kind of paint you use. Spray paint enamel maybe, or latex, or oil, or whatever you prefer to work with.

[Delphinus]

I think so, or at least at a paint supply store. You could also get it of course at a boating supply store, but I would think it's probably at a premium at those places.

[Doug]

I use Beauti-tone acrylic latex semi-gloss enamal, on the sides and back of my tank. Its from Home Hardware. I dont have a hood, so cant help you there.

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

I have used white polyurethane paint with my canopy, but it seems to change colour over time (i.e. turns yellow). I think this is related to the UV produced by the lamps. So, I will be trying aluminum foil lining next time.

Hope that helps.

- Victor.

[Son Of Skyline]

Thanks everone. I just got back from Mills Paint (excellent customer service btw :) ) as I did a search and found out they sold marine paint. According to them however, marine paints contain fungicides and other nasty chemicals which harm aquarium animals, and should be avoided. He then went on to mention something called "potable water" which is supposed to be a paint used to line drinking water tanks and such which may be a better bet. I'm going to do some research now on this stuff.

I thought about lining the canopy with a reflective material as well, but the thought of all the work involved and the fact that I just read somewhere (here, RC...can't remember) that white would be the best for reflection.

[Delphinus]

Huh. I didn't realize boat paint would contain fungicide. I've heard of people mixing cayenne into their boat paint to keep the barnacles off but I didn't realize that the commercially available stuff would contain stuff already off-the-shelf. Sorry I gave you a bad tip then. :(

[Son Of Skyline]

Sorry I gave you a bad tip then. :(

Dont be :)

I just did a search on RC and the same suggestion came up a couple times. It may be possible that marine paint is in fact safe for aquariums, but it's better safe than sorry I guess.

[ranz]

I used marine enamel everywhere! no problems after nine months, I was under the understanding that it has bad chemicals for fungus but when it dry's it is inert.... The problem is! dont use it around your established tank, it has to cure well (3 days at least)

Ranzreefer.....

[rossb]

Delphinus/son of skyline I think you should be safe with either a spar urethane or spar varnish. On my fresh water tank I have used spar urethane to coat the pine cribbing and it has held up well (under a 1000W Mh bulb). The urethane is essentially a plastic. There is a water based version of this called verathane...but it is not nearly as tough. I expect the marine paints that the store is refering to are called antifouling paints. These come in a number of flavors and are designed to prevent maring growth on the hull and most contain copper (amoung other things).

I have had a sailboat for years and I would use a paint made by Sikkens. These paints are simply the best I have ever found. They are somewhat elastic so they don't crack and have a UV guard. The make a marine varnish called cetol, and also some house paints. You can get these here at windsor plywood.

The trick to these paints is in the application. I would put a coat on, use a wet sand paper and sand it smooth as the paint raises the nap on the wood. I then would apply apply another coat and sand and then a third coat. You are trying to get a very smooth surface. This is effective on even particle board.

[Dez]

We use Tremclad Rust Paint (Medium Blue) here at the Aquarium Store (Aquiarium Illusions) for the outside of the tank. If you ever need to get it off, it just scraped or peels off...

Works well.