Is Paint Okay In An Aquarium?

[Creature Seeker]

I recently made my own aquarium background from polysterine as didn't like the ones you could buy (thought they were boring and expensive! ). I have coated it two coats of cement and it is now pretty rock solid but I was wondering if I added a layer of paint or maybe just drybrushed some corners lighter to give it a better rock effect would this paint be toxic to the fish once it's all dry?

By drybrushing I mean putting a very very small amount of white paint on a brush, then brushing most of it off so there's hardly anything on the brush. Then you can brush the corners of the background which will just gradually get lighter and lighter.

So is this okay?

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[jayjay]

I wouldn't think it would be safe, there maybe some 'tank safe' paints out there, not something i'd risk.

 

[SarahFish]

i've seen some home made backgrounds to a friend of mine and they were "painted" and the fish were ok, i'll ask him what he used and i'll tell you asap

 

[voo]

What about using food-safe paints, they should be ok

 

[SPLiSH]

There's a thread about making your own backgrounds in the DIY section, searching for 'DIY background' should find it.

EDIT: To make it more natural and rocky looking you could use aquarium safe silicon and stick some sand etc. on...

 

[Creature Seeker]

There's a thread about making your own backgrounds in the DIY section, searching for 'DIY background' should find it.

EDIT: To make it more natural and rocky looking you could use aquarium safe silicon and stick some sand etc. on...

It looks very much like rocks as it is (shape and texture) just cement tends to go a bit dark so wanted to highlight some areas.

Food safe paints sound like a good idea. I'll look into them.

I can't search for DIY backgrounds as it won't let me search for a word less than four letters. .

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[SarahFish]

i talked to my friend this morning and he said that you can use "paint" for cement (it's something with Fe)

you make the polystyrene base and you cover it with cement (already colored cement)

you have some colors to chose from: red, yellow, black...

but IT IS NOT SAFE to put the fish in in the first month, in that time you have to make regular water changes once at few days, because of the Fe oxid it contains...