# Help with painting PVC (I've done research, need more help)



## MiPwnYew (Aug 10, 2012)

Alright guys, I know what everyone says about painting PVC- Use Krylon Fusion. However, I have a few questions.

The reason I'm asking is because I found a spray paint that is close to the color of my 3d background (for my two intake pipes) that Krylon can't match. It is a Rustoleum- Stone textured finish. Picture below

Top-a piece of my background, bottom-paint cap










Now I just want to post the data sheets for Krylon Fusion and the Rustoleum to show the difference and see if anyone can tell me if it will be safe...

Here's the Krylon- Seems like a lot of ingredients










But here's the Rustoleum, seems like a lot less










and the other data sheet saying that the rustoleum is a water based acrylic










Now, if the Rustoleum has something bad in the ingredients, can I just use a krylon fusion matte clear coat to cover up the paint and protect the rustoleum from leaching into the water? Or does the rustoleum look like it will be okay to use?

Thank guys


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## MiPwnYew (Aug 10, 2012)

Also, I should add that the paint will be curing for probably about a month or so before I actually set up my tank


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I will preface my answer by saying that there is no guarantee that either product is 100% safe for aquarium inhabitants.

I have used Krylon Fusion spray paint for my spray-bars, intake and output pipes without noticing any problems with my fish, snails or plants.

I don't see any reason why the Rustoleum spray paint would be any different. The important thing is to make sure that both products are allowed to cure properly before putting them in your aquarium. One month should be more than sufficient, IMO.

Is there any chance you can use a test tank setup to experiment with prior to using the cured Rustoleum in your main tank?


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

I believe Razor uses Rustoleum on his spray bars, and I'm thinking he said he waits about 48 hours (twice the stated cure time). I'll see if I can head him this way. I just added a new spray bar to a 75 that I painted with Rustoleum and waited 48 hours so it's a timely question as I haven't added any fish yet due to the water being unusually cloudy and not clearing up in the normal 1-3 days. Hoping it's not a side effect of the paint LOL!


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

As Deeda said the MOST important thing is to allow the paint to cure. Here is what I found in my research....if you are going to put on multiple thick coats it is best to allow them to dry fully and cure between coats. I always wait at least 3-5 days, at least, before putting any painted material inside my tank. I want to make sure it is fully cured. The thicker the coats the longer it needs to cure.

Also as Deeda mentioned none of these products are guaranteed safe for your aquarium. Any plastic spray paint should work whether krylon fusion or rustoleum as long as it is made to adhere to plastic.

You could also put it in a tub of water to sit, provided you have a tub large enough, after it is finished curing.


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## MiPwnYew (Aug 10, 2012)

Sounds good, I appreciate it guys. I decided to spray on a few light coats of some Krylon matte clear just in case. It will definitely have plenty of time to fully cure and I'll make sure to let them sit in a bucket of water or something similar for a few days before I put it in the tank!


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## MiPwnYew (Aug 10, 2012)

Just thought I'd update you guys of how it came out.

I have one on the other side of the tank as well, it's a 100 gallon tank. Blends pretty well in my opinion!


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## DrTenochtitlan (Jun 17, 2012)

It looks really good! The color and texture are certainly spot on. Now... have you had it running in the tank with fish yet?


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## MiPwnYew (Aug 10, 2012)

Not yet, I literally sprayed it yesterday morning haha. Turns out there's a chance of storms today so I had to take them inside. Dry enough to handle, but wouldn't trust it to be cured yet and my 3D background is still drying from being siliconed in a few days ago.

I decided I'm also going to make a few extra lower pipes that will be sprayed with only Krylon fusion, just in case. I have black (for the other pieces of plumbing that I already sprayed) and a textured brown that doesn't match nearly as well and isn't nearly as textured either, which is still Krylon fusion.

Reaalllyy hoping this paint will work though because it matches so well :/


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

Yeah. That looks really really good!


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Good job....looks great.


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## Ladyfish (Jul 21, 2012)

Really nice, you did an excellent job matching the background! And about your background, it looks great too! Did you make that yourself? If not, where did you find it? 

Looking forward to seeing it all up and running opcorn:


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

So.... As short a story as I can make it.

Painted a spray bar with Rustoleum primer and paint. Several coats, about 10 minutes apart (per the instructions on the can).

Added it to a rebuilt tank three days later, sans fish.

The next morning I noticed the water smelled... wrong. A vaguely chlorine like smell. The water was also cloudy, but as I had added new sand, I expected this.

Let it sit for a week and a half (sans fish), however it still smelled and was still cloudy. The smell had gone from very much chlorine like to... something else. Weaker, but still... wrong.

Decided to do a 100% water change last night. While doing this I removed the spray bar to give it a smell. It smelled fine, but I noticed the paint had bubbled. Not on the tubing, but on virtually all the elbows. I suspect the primer had issues adhering to the glossy finish on the elbows.

Filled the tank back up, sans spray bar. The water smells fine and is nice an clear. My guess it was the paint/primer that was fouling the water.

Ah well, fortunately no fish were part of the learning experience, and I'm out maybe $25, including the paint. Not a big loss, and I needed to redrill the spray bar anyway as I changed the substrate from crushed coral to sand and it was making some very nice dunes.

In the future, I'm going to use primer again, however I will give each coat of primer and paint a full 24 hours to cure... Then I'll likely test in a tub of water for a week or two to make sure everything is okay.

In the mean time, I will build a new spray bar to fine tune holes sizes for sand, and leave it unpainted while I build a duplicate painted version. I just can't leave a tank sit empty for a couple of weeks :lol: .


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## Ladyfish (Jul 21, 2012)

Dawg2012 said:


> So.... As short a story as I can make it.
> 
> Painted a spray bar with Rustoleum primer and paint. Several coats, about 10 minutes apart (per the instructions on the can).
> 
> ...


Wow, so glad your fish didn't suffer any permanent damage!! I bet they would have, if you hadn't been on top of it. Had you roughed-up the spray bar before painting? I was going to the hardware store tonight, so I'll keep in mind your tough lessons!

So tell me about the drill holes - how big and how far apart this time around? I've got sand too ;-)


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Thanks for that update, Dawg. I definitely suggest roughing up the PVC with sandpaper first as this allows the paint something to grab onto. I don't think you need to use primer though, I don't think it serves any purpose for this type of project.

I'm glad you tested this out prior to adding fish.


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## Mike_G (Nov 8, 2011)

Deeda said:


> Thanks for that update, Dawg. I definitely suggest roughing up the PVC with sandpaper first as this allows the paint something to grab onto.


+1



Deeda said:


> I don't think you need to use primer though, I don't think it serves any purpose for this type of project.


Respectfully, I have to disagree here- using a proper primer for plastic will give paint a better surface to adhere to, which is important when using something like Rustoleum enamel that doesn't etch into the surface like Krylon Fusion.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Deeda said:


> I don't think you need to use primer though, I don't think it serves any purpose for this type of project.


Respectfully, I have to disagree here- using a proper primer for plastic will give paint a better surface to adhere to, which is important when using something like Rustoleum enamel that doesn't etch into the surface like Krylon Fusion.[/quote]

I did not know that, though admittedly, I have not used anything but Krylon Fusion on PVC.


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## MiPwnYew (Aug 10, 2012)

I'm going to attempt to put my pipes in the water tomorrow (no fish, doing a test fill) and let them sit in the tank for a few days to see what they do. I actually scuffed all of my PVC piping up with a coarse red scotchbrite pad to make everything dull for the paint to grab onto, then I sprayed everything with matte black Krylon fusion. When it had dried, I took off the actual intake part of my piping and sprayed that textured Rustoleum paint over it, figured it would give the paint something to stick to.

It's been baking in the 100 degree Texas sun for about a week now, so I'm going to give it a go. I also made extra pipes using only Krylon fusion, 2 in black and 2 with a lighter brown, which I then sprayed some very light coats of black over to darken it up.

Hope it goes well lol


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## MiPwnYew (Aug 10, 2012)

Oh, and as for the background, I got it from Designs By Nature. It's one of the thinner backgrounds, only about 2.5 inches at the thickest part. I wanted a thinner one because my 100 gallon tank is only 18 inches deep, didn't want to take up too much tank space with some of the 5-6 inch deep backgrounds. This crappy cell phone picture makes the tank look more blue than it actually is because it was filtered through Instagram and compressed, but you get the idea.


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## Ladyfish (Jul 21, 2012)

Nice background! Are you mounting it against the glass or leaving room for equipment behind it?


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## Mike_G (Nov 8, 2011)

Deeda said:


> I did not know that, though admittedly, I have not used anything but Krylon Fusion on PVC.


I'm a master-class modeler so I paint a lot of plastic.


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## Ladyfish (Jul 21, 2012)

Mike_G said:


> I'm a master-class modeler so I paint a lot of plastic.


Nice! 

So your thoughts on using primer with Krylon? Needed or not?


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## Mike_G (Nov 8, 2011)

Ladyfish said:


> Mike_G said:
> 
> 
> > I'm a master-class modeler so I paint a lot of plastic.
> ...


Shouldn't need primer with the Krylon Fusion as it's made to bond to raw plastic, but I'd definitely use a plastic primer with most other paints, especially enamels like the Rustoleum referenced in this thread. :wink:


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

I think next time I'll just use Krylon Fusion! 8)


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## MiPwnYew (Aug 10, 2012)

Well just a heads up, the particular Rustoleum that I used was a no go lol. It wasn't that it didn't stick to the pipe, but basically as soon as I put it in the tank the paint softened up. I guess it's the way the paint was made, it was kind of air-y or maybe foamy to give it that textured look and it didn't react to water well. Luckily I made those backup pipes and my brown/black mix pipes look pretty close as well.

Lessoned learned I guess. Here's a picture of my backup pipes that I'll end up using. Not perfect, but close enough I guess


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## Ladyfish (Jul 21, 2012)

Oh that's a shame!  I was hoping to do about the same thing with my plans for background and pipework painting, now I'll have to go to Plan B. Good you did the experiment before adding fish, very clever!


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## MiPwnYew (Aug 10, 2012)

I just mounted the background against the glass, as it had a flat back. I also didn't want to drill holes in the background for water to move through, figure it would mess up the aesthetics on this background. If was one of the other backgrounds without the flat back and had more curves where I could hide the holes better then I'd probably do that. I'm satisfied with it though! The only thing people will see are the two intake pipes, the returns will be loc line nozzles spraying at the top of the water for aeration and to make sure my LEDS shimmer!


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## Ladyfish (Jul 21, 2012)

Mike_G said:


> Shouldn't need primer with the Krylon Fusion as it's made to bond to raw plastic, but I'd definitely use a plastic primer with most other paints, especially enamels like the Rustoleum referenced in this thread. :wink:


Thanks Mike... painting this weekend, and I'll stick with the Krylon Fusion I do believe 



MiPwnYew said:


> I just mounted the background against the glass, as it had a flat back. I also didn't want to drill holes in the background for water to move through, figure it would mess up the aesthetics on this background. If was one of the other backgrounds without the flat back and had more curves where I could hide the holes better then I'd probably do that. I'm satisfied with it though! The only thing people will see are the two intake pipes, the returns will be loc line nozzles spraying at the top of the water for aeration and to make sure my LEDS shimmer!


That makes sense! What type filters are you using? Oh and look forward to seeing more pics with fish and all!


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