Aquarium Safe Paint

I'm setting up a new display tank. I'm using a corner matten filter with an air-driven lift tube. The filter foam is black, the aquarium background will be dark, if not totally black as well, so the white lift tube will be more obvious than I'd like. So I'd like to paint it black or dark gray.

I know Krylon Fusion for Plastics is supposed to be aquarium safe when dried. Unfortunately, Krylon seems to have a horrible distribution system in my area as I can't find any local merchant who stocks it. Walmart listed some online but showed it as out of stock. It wasn't the right color anyway. Besides that, one can of the paint will cost more than the lift tube itself.

Before I give up and just live with the white plastic contrasting badly with the rest of the decor, is there an aquarium safe alternative? Home Depot carries Rustoleum and they have one product that claims to work on plastic. It also had the benefit of working on other materials, so I might be able to use it for something else, and costing only $6. Any idea if this would be safe for the aquarium once fully dried?

Could I maybe use some other paint and then top it with several coats of polyurethane?

 

If its just a short price of pipe they have black pipe. That would be the cheapest route. Just take the pipe with you to home depo. As far as paints I usually only see fusion or plastidip recommended.

 

I should have mentioned it's a commercially manufactured version of a Czech lift tube, so I need to use the bottom section as that's where the magic happens. That piece is metric. I'm guessing I'd have little luck finding metric pipe around here. The second problem is one of the pieces is a sweep elbow, which is almost impossible to find in small PVC. The elbow is visible above the foam so I'd need to replace that too.

You got me thinking of alternatives though. I could probably find some flexible clear tubing that will fit over the outlet tube. If I lower the uplift a bit I can keep the elbow from showing above the foam. And I can move it back into the corner so only the clear tubing would show from the front of the tank. This is probably a better and cheaper approach. I'm sure I can find some tubing that can be coaxed into sliding over that outlet piece.

 

I should have mentioned it's a commercially manufactured version of a Czech lift tube, so I need to use the bottom section as that's where the magic happens. That piece is metric. I'm guessing I'd have little luck finding metric pipe around here. The second problem is one of the pieces is a sweep elbow, which is almost impossible to find in small PVC. The elbow is visible above the foam so I'd need to replace that too.

You got me thinking of alternatives though. I could probably find some flexible clear tubing that will fit over the outlet tube. If I lower the uplift a bit I can keep the elbow from showing above the foam. And I can move it back into the corner so only the clear tubing would show from the front of the tank. This is probably a better and cheaper approach. I'm sure I can find some tubing that can be coaxed into sliding over that outlet piece.

That's exactly what I was going to suggest. Get a piece of corrugated black tubing like the Fluval canisters use for their intake and return pipes and as far as covering the elbow if you have a black pre-filter sponge maybe you can cover the bend with that as to not risk the pieces coming apart from the flex of the corrugated piping

 

That's exactly what I was going to suggest. Get a piece of corrugated black tubing like the Fluval canisters use for their intake and return pipes and as far as covering the elbow if you have a black pre-filter sponge maybe you can cover the bend with that as to not risk the pieces coming apart from the flex of the corrugated piping

This is an interesting suggestion. If I get corrugated tubing of the right size I could slide it down over the outlet and completely around the bend. It would be a shroud and extension all in one. It wouldn't even have to fit particularly well since there's no way it's going to come off if I feed it far enough along the tub.

I'll have to see if I can find somebody selling larger diameters of this stuff by the foot. A full roll costs more than the uplift tube and I'm not sure I can justify that cost.

 

This is an interesting suggestion. If I get corrugated tubing of the right size I could slide it down over the outlet and completely around the bend. It would be a shroud and extension all in one. It wouldn't even have to fit particularly well since there's no way it's going to come off if I feed it far enough along the tub.

I'll have to see if I can find somebody selling larger diameters of this stuff by the foot. A full roll costs more than the uplift tube and I'm not sure I can justify that cost.

What is the size of the pipe you want covered? 1/2"-5/8"-3/4"?

 

What is the size of the pipe you want covered? 1/2"-5/8"-3/4"?

The bell portion on the elbow is 1-1/8" OD. Probably need 1-1/4" ID tubing, though since this is just a shroud I could probably slit one side and slip on something of a slightly smaller diameter.

 

The bell portion on the elbow is 1-1/8" OD. Probably need 1-1/4" ID tubing, though since this is just a shroud I could probably slit one side and slip on something of a slightly smaller diameter.

yes or like I mentioned for the elbow you could always cut a piece of prefilter sponge and glue it to the viewable side. Didn't realize the tubing was that big