Painting in Tank Acrylic?

[Wy Renegade]

Seen somebody suggest doing this, and I'm setting up a new tank that has an acrylic divider. I want to paint the back of the tank, but not real sure about trying to paint acrylic that will be inside the tank.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Nobody has any experience or thoughts on this?

 

[Murfman]

Randy, can't you paint the outside? IMHO, that would be better than the inside.

 

[Wy Renegade]

While I agree with you Paul the acrylic divider will actually split the tank in two, so there will be water on both sides of it. So in this particular case, there is no outside.

 

[Troylee]

Not really a wise choice since scraping coraline will scrape the paint off also....
You can paint it with krylon and have no I'll effects besides a mess of paint down the road... On e the paint has dried it will be non toxic.... One thing it does do though is weaken the acrylic since it eats into in and causes crazing "small stress cracks" is there any way to just add a piece of black acrylic or something and eliminate the painting all together?

 

[Wy Renegade]

Not really a wise choice since scraping coraline will scrape the paint off also....
You can paint it with krylon and have no I'll effects besides a mess of paint down the road... On e the paint has dried it will be non toxic.... One thing it does do though is weaken the acrylic since it eats into in and causes crazing "small stress cracks" is there any way to just add a piece of black acrylic or something and eliminate the painting all together?

Thanks Lee, this info was exactly what I was looking for. I may look into putting piece of black acrylic on the visible portion. I'll have to see if I can pick up a sheet somewhere. Can I simply silicon the black to the clear or do I need to do something different?

 

[Troylee]

Ya that shouldn't be a problem at... Granted it's aquarium Safe silicone..;)

 

[Wy Renegade]

Yep, GE type I (100% silicon) if I remember correctly? Any suggestions on black acrylic? Thought I would check Home Depot and Ace? Also, what do I need to cut acrylic? Certain blade for the table saw? How about the dremel?

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Walmart sells some aquarium silicone as well in the fish section of the store.

 

[Troylee]

hd and lowes out here don't carry black acrylic but out there who knows.... you get a piece real cheap off ebay or just pm me a size and i could ship ya one im sure i have plenty of scraps lol.....