Paint glass . Can I ?

[master.k.]

I figure this is the place to ask!
The problem I have is with the black back ground . The fish will splash water
out of the tank , and the back ground will-stick to the tank"Fore days" . Also it gets dusty and dirty
Just wandering , if any idea out their , to a nice back ground.

 

[Matty1124]

sure you can paint the glass with spray paint so you dont get streaks from a brush... i would do it with no fish in the tank, and do a bunch of light coats... best to have the tank resting with the side that will be the back face up so you dont get any runs... oh and i dont know if this needs to be said but you should do it on the outside of the glass

EDIT: oh yeah mask off everything you dont want to be misted with paint... this means the open top and all sides

 

[WyldFya]

I used black flat spraypaint. Only reason for flat is it adheres better to the glass. The look from the inside will be the same whether you use gloss or flat. Use a very fast motion for the first layer, just to give the rest of the paint something to adhere to.

 

[WyldFya]

sure you can paint the glass with spray paint so you dont get streaks from a brush... i would do it with no fish in the tank, and do a bunch of light coats... best to have the tank resting with the side that will be the back face up so you dont get any runs... oh and i dont know if this needs to be said but you should do it on the outside of the glass

Brush strokes won't show from the inside as long as you coat if a few times.

 

[Euge]

look into some stuff called krylon fusion its a spray. i knwo you can use it to spray PVC tubing and its fish safe. According to its site you can paint glass as well

 

[cichlaguapote]

I used black flat spraypaint. Only reason for flat is it adheres better to the glass. The look from the inside will be the same whether you use gloss or flat. Use a very fast motion for the first layer, just to give the rest of the paint something to adhere to.

I agree flat black works best. Don't worry about runs either as they won't show on the inside.

 

[WyldFya]

look into some stuff called krylon fusion its a spray. i knwo you can use it to spray PVC tubing and its fish safe. According to its site you can paint glass as well

Krylon fusions is a plastic paint that binds to plastics. It does work on glass, but no better than a basic spraypaint.

 

[FishSkins]

I used black flat spraypaint. Only reason for flat is it adheres better to the glass. The look from the inside will be the same whether you use gloss or flat. Use a very fast motion for the first layer, just to give the rest of the paint something to adhere to.

yep so true

 

[eh1421]

can we paint it?
yes we can!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bob the builder

 

[Matty1124]

i read on another forum that krylon fusion is good for pvc but you cant paint acrylic with it... something about it breaking it down over time... ill see if i can find where i read that

EDIT:
"Krylon does not recomend Fusion paint for any Plexi or Lexans PERIOD, and they also caution against its use on lots of styrene based plastics. Their label is missleading when it states plastics. But a call to Krylon gave me the low down. Thing is Fusion and lots of other paints even when cured never really finish doing damage to the material they are applied to, so you can have aproblem long way down the road. Fusion was mainly designed to paint the PVC materials and such usually encountered in outside lawn furniture...

I was kind of skeptical with not usuing it on Lexan or Plexi. I painted a scrap of 1/4 ROHM brand acrylic over a year ago. I appied 3 or 4 coats which were applied very light and allowed to dry between coats. Now if I look at that piece of plexi, the unpainted side reveals a ton of small minute scratches which are actually craze distortion so the plexi is actually in a state of disintergration. I just had to satisfy my own thoughts with fusion."