# Aquarium safe paint?



## SeanF1979

I have been researching this for quite some time now and I'd like to find out if anybody has painted their own decorations for the inside of their aquarium and if so what paint did they go with? One of my many projects is to put sunken ships from WW2 in one of my tanks and I'd like to paint them but then again I don't want to make the water toxic and only have the battleships in my tank and no fish. I have some model paint laying around(acrylic enamel), but I'm not sure if I can use them or not.


----------



## Dj823cichild

Why not just paint it on the outside? You know like a background, or is this what your trying to do but on the inside?


----------



## SeanF1979

I'm trying to paint model ships to put inside the aquarium. There are other things I would like to paint but need to know the best type of paint first. Aquarium decorations at the store are boring to me and I want my tank to be something different.


----------



## atr62

Acrylic paints should be fine as long as they are properly cured. Check with the mfg for details.

Angelo


----------



## SeanF1979

What kind of acrylic paints? Meaning do they have to be 100 percent etc? I have bottles sitting here that say Acrylic enamel but it doesn't say anything about what percent or what else might be in it. What does MFG stand for?


----------



## JWerner2

Check with hobby shops.

There is more and more environmentally safe/non toxic model paints coming out lately.

Everyone is thinking green I guess.


----------



## greg curtis

Krylon Fusion Acrylic paint is safe for aquarium use. I've used it on pvc many times and all is well. It was made for kid's toys so you decide.


----------



## under_control

greg curtis said:


> Krylon Fusion Acrylic paint is safe for aquarium use. I've used it on pvc many times and all is well. It was made for kid's toys so you decide.[/quote
> 
> But it is a spray paint, and doubt it would be very useful for a model....


----------



## SeanF1979

Yeah spray paint would be good for large objects or ones I didn't want much detail. That information helps if I decided to go that route. I'm looking for a liquid form that I can use to brush on my models or anything else that requires a brush.


----------



## niccomau

I've been reading around the forum and I am coming up with an alternative to the styro-cement backgrounds. But the material I'll be using needs to be painted too. A couple of posters have said they have used 100% acrylic art paint with no ill affects. Though I do believe after the intial painting they covered it with a couple coats of clear acrylic aswell. Once the acrylic cures completeley its good to go. :thumb:


----------



## front-fan

I have several tank backgrounds made from styrofoam, painted with ordinary latex paint and textured with sand. Just make sure that the paint is WELL cured. if you can smell it it's not cured. I usually wait at lest a week or so before I put anything I've painted in a tank. Make sure you don't use a paint with a fungicide â€" that'll kill almost anything.

-- front-fan


----------



## car0linab0y

SeanF1979 said:


> Yeah spray paint would be good for large objects or ones I didn't want much detail. That information helps if I decided to go that route. I'm looking for a liquid form that I can use to brush on my models or anything else that requires a brush.


get a small plastic cup or something, and spray the spray paint into it. had my wife do some stencil work on my valve covers on the car. i'd bought spray paint and was gonna tape everything off, but got it done a lot quicker her way.


----------

