Remove paint with powerwasher?

[ryddo]

I was reading a thread on here earlier this week where a person was goiong to try to remove paint from an aquarium with a powerwasher. I cannot find that thread anywhere. Has this been done before? If so, how did it go?

Ryan

 

[Jeff]

Razorblade wont work? Thats all I have ever used.

 

[ryddo]

I am sure the razorblade will work. My only issue is that it is a 265 with the back and 2 sides painted. I am worried that it will take way to long and I am also worried about damaging the silicone with the blades.

 

[scrombussquared]

I replied to the other post you're referring to... I do not recommend using a pressure washer to remove paint from your aquarium.( I think what I said was " Why use 100 pounds of dynamite when one pound will do?" You're asking for trouble. An easier way would be to use a paint remover, assuming it's a glass tank. HD carries an aerosol paint stripper, about 7 bucks a can. You'll still need to scrape, but a plastic scraper will do the job nicely.
The pressure washer might blow the sillycone out of the seams.

 

[northcoastdiver]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13748373#post13748373 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by scrombussquared
I replied to the other post you're referring to... I do not recommend using a pressure washer to remove paint from your aquarium.( I think what I said was " Why use 100 pounds of dynamite when one pound will do?" You're asking for trouble. An easier way would be to use a paint remover, assuming it's a glass tank. HD carries an aerosol paint stripper, about 7 bucks a can. You'll still need to scrape, but a plastic scraper will do the job nicely.
The pressure washer might blow the sillycone out of the seams.

Agreed

 

[ryddo]

Wont the paint stripper harm the silicone?

 

[Rysam]

i found a 4" wide razorblade scraper for 2$ and a pack of blades for another 2$ at walmart. it took about 10-15 minutes tops to scrape my entire 135. it was a PITA but IMO a lot easier and less time than stripping/pressure washing and you can easily control the blade well enough to avoid silicone.

 

[ryddo]

great, thanks for letting me know that. I actually found a gel type stripper that I am going to try. It is called citristrip and should be easy to control. I am going to do the majority of the tank with it and then clean up the edges with a razorblade.

 

[8BALL_99]

Its really easy to get paint off of glass with a razor blade.. I scrape the the inside of all my tanks about every other month with a razor blade to get the build up of coraline off.

FWIW the other thread was a guy wanting to remove the silicone from the tank. He was a little strange but from what I understood he wanted to disassemble the tank with a pressure washer instead of just using razor blades. I didn't really see any advantage to that either. He never updated his post so not sure if he tried it or not.

 

[DodgeDude99]

a normal household type power washer works fine and doesnt harm anything, its not like you are just concentrating on the silicone only.

i have yet to have a problem, and i have used my PW on 5 tanks so far.

 

[ryddo]

I used the stripper and wow, what a great job! I only let it sit about 2 - 3 minutes and then removed the paint with a spakle blade. I kept the stripper about an each from the seems and then cleaned that up with a razor blade. I will need to bost before and after photos.