Background Color

[Kstater10]

I was pondering whether to paint the back of my aqarium. The aqarium is up and running is it ok to hand paint the back with the water in it if i have an efficient way of air circulation. And what is a color that will not take away from the corals and fish but add depth to the tank. I was thinking a light blue. Your opinions are appreciated. Thanks, pics of your background would be sweet!

 

[drummereef]

I like black personally. I think it makes the corals and fish really stand out. If you have room, you can paint it with it set up but might be a real pain.

 

[jjmg]

I would use a latex paint, I've painted rooms with tanks and directly behind tanks with latex with no problems, and I like black. I've used dark blue but prefer black. Of course if you wait a while it will become coraline covered and not matter much.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

Heres what i'm gonna do. I'm gonna go to home depot or lowes and get the thinnest sheet of acrylic i can get (i think 1/8")...i'll get one that is the same size as the back glass of my tank. But then i'll paint that acrylic sheet either black or blue, and then just put that on the back. This way you dont gotta worry bout either gettign paint/fumes in the tank, or messing up and getting paint somewhere undesireable (besides in the tank)

But black will add more depth to the tank...blue will make the colors stand out a bit more. I personally dont like the really light blues, but if its something thats a little lighter than the blue on the scroll bars on this page, i may like it a bit...

Also, is this a rectangle (or square) tank? If so, is there anything thats built into the back? (like an overflow or some other thing) If not and its just a plain rectangular tank, this also allows you to flip the tank around later if you wanted to (due to scratches or whatever, you know?) and instead of having to scrape paint off, you just flip the acrylic sheet around. Now i've never done that, but it'd work

 

[massman]

Black is my choice.
Blue can wash out some fish eg blue tangs etc
IME its pointless painting glass, it doesn't last that well.
A better option is double sided velcro tape and a sheet of corflute attached to the back.
Get one black, and one blue if you like, then choose.
Or swap around if you feel like a change.

 

[auto_loader]

I like deeper darker shades of blue. I always found that if you choose blue paint, it looks a few shades lighter under your tank lighting than it looks like in the store.. Since I prefer darker, I find the darkest blue possible to get the desired effect.

 

[areze]

black or blue so dark it comes off as black. like a "blue" suit.

I panted my glass with spray paint, no chips, no flakes, no cracks, it worked great.

I had a vinyl sheet on it prior, same color. hated it. we all know salt is a fact of life, it gets everywhere. well I found it repeatedly getting between the glass and the vinyl.

cant do that with paint.

 

[druce]

I just use a background I got at the LFS - might be an option for you

one side is black, one is a gradual blue (from light to dark)

gives you a chance to experiment.

Even if you want to paint later, this might be a good way to test and make sure it's what you want.

 

[Kstater10]

Should i use a primer coat?

 

[areze]

errr; your painting the OUTSIDE of the glass; so the first layer is what you'll see through it. so no.

if you want to try the acrylic backing, then a primer coat wouldnt be a big deal either, since we're talking dark colors, coverage shouldnt be a big problem.

now if your doing light blue on an acrylic backing, a white primer coat would be wise.

 

[reef_doug]

IMO... I like black. Coraline will happen and I think it looks better on black than blue.

Curious if anyone has tried lino dark window tint?

 

[diver_ua]

Try blue gradient or...

R 118
G 0
B 33

I saw that color in the real tank with 10K MH. It was very interesting.