weird question...

[BIGBIRD123]

Is there any paint that is reef-safe? I know it's a weird question but I have a small tank that my son wants me to make into a reef tank for him. I want to let him take care of the tank on his own but don't want to put anything in there he can kill, maybe a few damsels. I want to paint all of my old dead sps's so that they look real and he then thinks he has "corals" in his tank. Just a thought....any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

Steve

[Reef69]

well, no idea but this is just a thought..maybe you can use food colors..thingies..the things they use on cakes and such, you can mix it with water and kinda dip them..in there..i guess..they sell blue and red and green and..alot of colors..and since those food color thingies are made from vegetable oil..(i think)..i wouldnt think it would harm a cpl of damsels..just a hypothesis!!!!..lol

[Richard]

You could use marine paint or a two part epoxy paint. Check out Garf, I think they have some info under building your own tank out of plywood & glass.

[Ram_Puppy]

they sell some nice re-creations of marine invertebrates now days, and they seem soft and rubbery, so I don't know if coraline would be a problem on them or not. but when you get right down to it, coraline, or nuisance algae is going to be an issue for him anyhow, depending on how well he cares for the tank. how about instead of using dead sps's or fakes, you opt for some nice macro algaes? there are some gorgeous red ones out there, and they would actually contribute to the tanks health.

[BIGBIRD123]

Ram,
See if you can find me some links on the macros. I think that might be some to consider. Thanks.

Steve

[Ram_Puppy]

well, here is one example... I have some right now, but not enough to share I think... When I started my fuge i had some lighting problems and lost most of it, it's coming back though.

http://www.saltcorner.com/sections/guest/algaepage/Red/redgrapealgae/Botryocladia.htm

a similar species I have had crop up on my liverock:

http://www.saltcorner.com/sections/guest/algaepage/Red/redgrapealgae/Bpseudodichotoma.htm

you can go to live aquaria or any of the larger online vendors and find awesome specimens...

remember, too, mushrooms are almost bulletproof.

[Ram_Puppy]

here is another shot of red grape algae (mine infact) before I killed most of it through stupidity, will be happy to share once it recovers.

http://www.digitalflytrap.com/pages/red_grape_algae_JPG.htm

[alexwolf]

Reeftopia.com sells red grape calupera.