Paint to seal aquarium canopy

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M

Mythic Figment

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 27, 2012
2,117
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Florida
So I just bought a canopy from a guy on Craigslist today. Looks good for $30. There are a couple of small dark spots on the underside of the canopy that look to be the start of water damage, but the wood is a hard wood and it is not separating or softening at all, so I plan to just sand it down a bit and reseal it. This canopy is more or less temporary. I plan to get about a year out of it before building my own canopy that will be spared no expense, but that is a thread for another day.

My question is what should I reseal it with? I have settled on using LED lights, so heat is not going to be a big issue. The hood is almost completely enclosed, so moisture will be present in fairly high amounts, but the LEDs I am looking at are in a strip that is IP67 waterproof, so there is no issue there either. I want to reseal it for a relatively cheap cost. I don't want to spend more than about $30 on resealing it and I don't want to have to wait a week for something to be shipped to me, so I prefer to be able to pick this up at a hardware store like Lowe's.

At advice is appreciated. Thanks all!


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So I have read up on this topic and am still very confused. No one disagrees that epoxy and marine paint are both great, but epoxy is expensive and time consuming. Marine paint is fairly easy to use, but I may have trouble finding any easily. I also see recommendations for latex paint, enamel paint, exterior paint and urethane paints. Some of those may be the same or very similar.

And then there are decisions like oil versus water based paints? Everyone seems to agree that white is the color to paint. But which is better, flat or gloss?


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Bro.....Just go to the hardware store and get some exterior paint. It's made to be painted on the exterior of a house, so it can get wet and be ok. I've used it on canopies before, and it's good to go.
 
I like an oil gloss white exterior paint for inside a stand or canopy. The finish is highly reflective (very helpful with exposed lighting) and easy to wipe down. Downside is clean-up requires mineral spirits. I use disposable brushes/rollers to avoid that. The fumes are toxic, so do it outside. Cool, damp weather will make the oil based paint take FOREVER to dry. Try to pick a warm day.

Grab some before and after pics if you can. Everybody here loves pictures! Even if it's something simple like painting inside a canopy.
 
deluther said:
I like an oil gloss white exterior paint for inside a stand or canopy. The finish is highly reflective (very helpful with exposed lighting) and easy to wipe down. Downside is clean-up requires mineral spirits. I use disposable brushes/rollers to avoid that. The fumes are toxic, so do it outside. Cool, damp weather will make the oil based paint take FOREVER to dry. Try to pick a warm day.

Grab some before and after pics if you can. Everybody here loves pictures! Even if it's something simple like painting inside a canopy.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! :)

I will try to get some pics up tonight when I get home, but my ipad Monster app hasn't been letting me post pics and my computer is being "repaired" by a friend, so it may be a few days. :(


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