Painting in the house-affect fish?

[DogFish]

My fish are in dining room, which is an extension of the living room. Around the corner are the stairs leading to the second floor. Before the fish arrived, I had painted the stairs but had not put a varnish coat on. I would like to do that this fall. It would be 4 days in a row, a coat of varnish each day.
If I leave the windows and doors open for a few hours during and after varnishing, will this be ok for the fish. Or will I likely poison them with the fumes?
Anyone painted in their house whilst the fish were home?

 

[guppymonkey]

The best thing to do would be to move the fish into a different room or a garage overnight while you varnish the stairs. The fumes from paint and such can effect people so I would think they could definately have a bad effect on your fish. Even with leaving windows open the fumes or even particles of varnish could get into the tank and kill all your fish. Its better to be safe then risk your fish.

 

[DogFish]

Thank you guppymonkey.
All right. I will have to plan this, I suppose moving the fish and the rats out to the garage for a few days should be ok.
Or do you think moving everyone to the basement will do? Or will the general house air be enough to contaminate their water.

 

[FishDan]

You don't have to move your fish. There is another recent thread about a similar topic, you can search for it. In short, if you are not painting/varnishing right near the tank, if you are ventilating the area, and you are not dripping paint/varnish in your tank, you will be fine. The danger of painting to aquarium fish seems to be greatly overstated. If you can work in the room while varnishing, your fish will be just fine. Even if you do need to wear a mask, your fish will be just fine. They are not working extensively with the paint/varnish and are not right there "in the thick of it". If you are really worried, you can put a towel over the top of your tank in addition to ventilating the area. Don't put all the stress on you and your fish that is totally unneeded. For reference, several people in the other thread painted with their fish present.

[EDIT]Post I refered to.

\Dan

 

[appleblossom]

and definitely, definitely turn off any bubble walls or similar, or your air pump will be sucking in the fumes and pumping them into your tank

 

[Tropjunky]

well i recomend using active carbon to nurtalise any fumes that manage to get in and if u wanna have a air pump then runn the air line so that the air moves thru an active carbom filter. Cover the tank with a cloth or something to minimise the fumes.

u might get a few deaths but that could be anything.

 

[yhbae]

I find that most of today's paint doesn't produce enough harmful fumes to cause any stress to the fishes. I could have been lucky, but so far, I've yet to loose one due to paint fumes.