blue or black background...which color makes SPS stand out more?

[nwrogers]

I like blue

 

[auto_loader]

I prefer blue, but NOT the light blue. It has to be DARK blue. The darkest shades of blue you find can looks best IMO.

 

[Marshall]

If you switch between black and blue (by just flipping the paper if you aren't painting) you will notice that the blue instantly makes the tank appear brighter because of the light it is reflecting back and this can be misleading. I would say go with black, it's all going to be purple eventually anyway

 

[danfrith]

Blue

 

[lpkirby]

I have blue somewhere under all that coraline.

 

[FSOL]

black. My black background got all covered w/ coraline algae, before I decided to scrape it all off and get the black back. The difference was amazing. I'll never let coraline grow on the back of the tank again.

 

[tonyscoots84]

u dun see the background when coralline algae takes over thats if u decide to keep the algae there... i choose navy blue.. i had black on my 75 gallon and doing a navy blue on my new tank looks awesome both ways ....

 

[Chad Vossen]

i like my background green.
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.
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yea im just joking, i have a black background! eventualy i will have it covered with coraline and coral anyways.

 

[EnFuego]

I have black, and think it hides equipment the best. I just added a nano-stream, and its barely noticeable...blends right in.

 

[giants4pc]

The blue color I had consisted of Thalo Blue, Thalo Green, and White. It was a bright (almost torquoise (sp?)) color. It's weird that many say it's only an illusion of brightness. The tank was clearly brighter with the blue. Now that it's clear and I'm deciding upon black or clear glass, it definitely isn't as bright. I painted only a middle portion black to compare it against the plain glass. I'm not really sure.

 

[PL-Reef]

i hate coraline! i scrape the back of my tank weekly!

 

[MiddletonMark]

I went with black, like it.

Some times I'll keep the back scraped - and feel that black makes the colors `pop' a little more, esp the blues and purples.

Then again, depending on how you aquascape you might not be able to scrape the black - then it's purplish whatever you put on the back.

 

[giants4pc]

I painted it black after everyone's rec.
To be honest, I think it looked better with the blue background. I don't have an updated pic with the black background, but this was it with blue.

The corals don't appear to "pop" more with black. Granted most of my sps are frags, but things seemed to stand out more with the blue. Perhaps it is my imagination or really poor visual perception. I don't know.

 

[Lo0seR]

I was going to go black till I had seen this thread a while back. So I went with the real dark blue "Midnight Dream" and am glad I did.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=969308&highlight=midnight+dream

 

[wilson0204]

Dark blue for me

 

[giants4pc]

Yah...I went black and scraped it after 3 days...not only didn't it look natural, it actually seemed to dull things for me. Perhaps midnight blue would be a better option. I appreciate the feedback.

 

[Justin74]

I am soo on the fence with this one. Both have equally postive traits and results in my honest opinion.

I really relate to the vastness it can create and it's more natural looking qualities is what drove me to chose blue. The overall brightness it presents is also an appreciated feature, when in the dark watchin HGTV with the lady I can look over from afar and enjoy.

But, the part that does elude me is the eye catchingness a black background can even bring to the smallest frag, while a blue one makes it harder to notice. Im at the point now since it's not painted Im thinking of changing the background.

I like the point the earlier poster made, though he gets no compliments on the black background, rest assured there looking at the fish and coral now and not the background.


-Justin

 

[scaryperson27]

I like coraline.

 

[Wazzel]

Dark blue.

 

[Gundo5000]

Black