Painting an aquarium full of fish

[shoelaceike]

I would like to paint the back of the tank black but the tank is already running. Anyone know if the fumes etc would be bad for the livestock?

 

[Flippers4pups]

I would like to paint the back of the tank black but the tank is already running. Anyone know if the fumes etc would be bad for the livestock?

Yes, every much so. Need to tape off the entire tank and, if you have one, sump with plastic sheeting. No open spots. Air out the room completely before removing the plastic. Run some GAC after as a preventive measure and possibly a water change as well. Can be done.

 

[SandJ]

An alternative may be to get black vinyl or cling on window tint.

Or a piece of black corrugated plastic and tape it onto the back. It may get water between it and the glass from time to time, but it would be easy to clean.

 

[cracker]

I use the plastic cardboard. It doesn't look as good as paint & it's inconvenient putting a power head on the back. The magnets usually aren't strong enough to hold thru the plastic board & putting the mag between looks kinda bad.
I'm fortunate to have some "very" strong,small magnets that came from an old CT scan machine, that work well enough.

 

[SandJ]

I use the plastic cardboard. It doesn't look as good as paint & it's inconvenient putting a power head on the back. The magnets usually aren't strong enough to hold thru the plastic board & putting the mag between looks kinda bad.
I'm fortunate to have some "very" strong,small magnets that came from an old CT scan machine, that work well enough.

Can you just cut out a hole for the power head magnet? If light shows through around the cutout, you could use some painters tape to seal it off.

 

[shoelaceike]

Thanks. I javea black backing but painting would look better....I can definitely use a low VOC paint like acrylic.

 

[cracker]

Can you just cut out a hole for the power head magnet? If light shows through around the cutout, you could use some painters tape to seal it off.

Sure could . I'm just not sure where where I want them yet.

 

[SandJ]

Sure could . I'm just not sure where where I want them yet.

Best to wait then lol Of course you could always save the cut out and put it back in later if you change the location.

 

[paphater]

Unless you are actively scrapping the back panel of coralline I'd go the cheap an easy route. I painted my back panel black but in less than a year it is more purple than black, about 90% covered. As long as you don't have light coming through I think you can get away with something easy.

 

[cracker]

Once upon a time I had a curtain of sorts I got at Micheal's. It was black with a lighter gold pattern thru out. That looked pretty good & blocked any light from shining thru.