House paint

[Rosanne]

Hi, my landlord wants to paint my ceiling. I’m concerned that it might be dangerous for my fish. I can’t move the tanks out. Any thoughts?

[Kirsten]

Can you offer to do it yourself if the landlord provides the materials? That way you know you can be careful near the tanks. But if you have lids and a drop cloth draped over them, I can't imagine you'd get any paint in the water.

[FrozenFins]

I haven't had any problems with paint and a fish tank. If your worried about the paint dripping from the ceiling into the fish tank cover it up with a towel or tarp.

[Rosanne]

I’m not worried about it dripping in the tank as much as the fumes. I think he might use kiln also because it’s to cover up a wet spot 

[gardenman]

If you're worried about the air pump sucking up the vapors and harming your fish, you can buy 25' of airline tubing pretty inexpensively and move the air pump to another room. You'll lose a bit of air pressure but have fewer fumes pumped into the tanks. 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

I'm no pro on this topic but in my experience if paint fumes harmed fish then mine would all be dead.

[CT_]

I have no idea how bad paint fumes really are but I heard on the internet (so it must be true) that they can be bad for sensitive fish. Take that for what its worth.

 

Supposedly the remedy is to use activated carbon in your filter.  Sounds like cheap insurance if you're worried.

[Rosanne]

Thank you everyone!