Archivarium 2004

[The Kapenta Kid]

Since you can have aquariums made out of acrylic, would acrylic based paint be OK to use in an aquarium?
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Men live like fishes;
the great ones devour the small

[brennus]

On the inside or outside of the tank? I think acylic paint would be bad for fish... I don't know for sure, I'm not big on this stuff.
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[fishio123]

Acrylic is deadly to fishes. Don't paint it on the inside of the tank!

[Cyradia]

As the others have already said you pretty much never want to paint inside a fish tank. However, you have a wide range of choices while painting outside the fish tank...and you can make yourself very nice backgrounds this way.

Spray paint is probably the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to go. Most of your time will be spent taping up all the sides so only the desired (probably just the back) surface is exposed. Make sure it's squeaky clean (I use acetone and papertowels to make sure it's spotless.) Then spray away...it's a good idea to use two coats.

I've also painted with acrylic paint using sponge brushes. It works well, although the paint is expensive (what you buy is usually designed to be mixed with water to thin...but you don't do this when painting glass so it's very thick and doesn't go a long way.) The thick paint is also a bit difficult to work with and you have to be patient and slowly glob on a thick coat to the glass. The two big advantages are the color selection is wider (especially since you can mix paints to get the perfect shade) and if you change your mind acrylic paint will come off very easily with warm water and a razor blade.
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[The Kapenta Kid]

Thanks for your input. The idea of the acrylic was to color cement grout for a styrofoam background since I couldn't find any dry cement pigment locally. I eventually got smart and realized that gouache (poster paint) from an artists' store would be ideal since it is just inorganic mineral pigments mixed in water.
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Men live like fishes;
the great ones devour the small