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I am thinking of painting the house and I need to know of ways and means to protect the aquarium. I am going to hire people to do the job for me, and it will include re-plastering the house, putting a coat of primer (some toxic chemical I believe) and then 2 coats of paint.

What do I need to do to protect my aquariums, can I paint in the room while the aquarium is there. Have been stalling painting for over a year now, and the inhabitants of one of them are clown loaches that are very sensitive to any kind of changes.

What do i do?

Hi ClownyGirl!
Have not seen you in chat in ages.
I would cover the tank(s) with a drop cloth, and turn
out the aquarium lights. I would use an air pump and
keep it in an area not being worked on. Use a long length
of air hose to allow the pump to be elsewhere. I'd also
"supervise" as much as possible so that the workers know
to be careful around the tanks.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I covered mine with plastic sold for painters and taped it with blue painting tape. I painted right around it including the wall behind and then removed the plastic that evening with no trouble. I left the lights and everything running just all covered up tightly. If your leaving it for awhile especially without good ventilation in the room to get the paint fumes out right afterward then it would be good to run an air pump from a different room.

i put my air pump in a box with a resporator filter on it, then just put plastic taped over the top

*click *flash *click "whered he go???"

If you are able to be on hand and supervise the decorating, then the simplest solution is to leave the doors open and let fresh air from outside waft in. One thing about living in India, it should still be fairly warm even in November so you won't have frost to worry about like us poor Brits.

If the decorators are concentrating on one room at a time, that simplifies matters somewhat, because you can get them to concentrate on the room containing the aquarium for one day, supervise that part of the operation, let fresh air in from outside, then once the room with the aquarium is done, it's just a matter of keeping connecting doors closed between that room and other rooms being decorated.

Mind you, if memory serves, your aquarium is a rather large one, so decorating in that room is going to be an interesting logistical exercise with such a large immovable object to work around!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I recently painted my living area - which is where our fish tank is located.

All we did was empty enough of the water out of the tank to move it away from the wall, then re-fill and cover with a drop sheet. It was taped around the tank to provide a reasonably secure cover. We left the light off during this time. However, we didn't move the air pump or anything like that. We did keep the windows open as well to get fresh air through.

The paint we were using had almost no smell to it at all, and the fish seemed more traumatised by moving the tank than by any chemicals. Certainly there were no losses and there seemed to be no long-term effects at all on any of the inhabitants.

Of course, I didn't have to do any re-plastering, just a little patching of a couple of holes, so my situation was a little simpler than yours. And the tank was quite small, so easy to move.

When I last painted the large living room where the 5ft tank is all I did was naturally open the windows and turned up the heat on the heater (this helps to dry the paint and shortens the fumes time.)
I roughly covered the tank only when I was working above the tank. It is about 99% glass covered. I also added another big air stone. Not a problem at all.
The big difference is I did all myself and knew what I was doing especially aroung the tank.
What you have to remember the fumes rise and will not be down low where I had the air pumps. The longer the air lines the less efctive they can become as well,

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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