Paint a tank in use

[John07]

I have a tank that is up and running and I am tired of seeing the wall and wires behind the tank.
Can I paint the back if the tank or do I need to find an alternative?

 

[electrotech]

You can paint it if you can get to it. Might be kind hard to reach all the way across the back. Or paint a piece of acrylic or something and lay it against the back.

 

[jay13]

i have used a small roller to touch up areas while the tank is running. do it in sections and have it well ventilated

 

[Titans_Reef]

I just used the vinyl sheets they sell for aquarium back grounds at Petco or even your LFS. I just inserted it into the top and bottom molding of the tank and taped the edges over. I had the same issue with my tank so it was an easy fix. The black background comes with the blue background on the opposite side so you can choose. It was faster and cheaper that way for me. You just need 2 people to put it on since it tends to slide down. If you put it up inside the molding, salt creep and water can not get in between and make it look unappealing.

 

[billdogg]

Latex paint and a roller and you will be good to go. Just make sure the back is cleaned of any salt residue. Even then the paint won't stick too well and may require a couple coats

 

[toothybugs]

Latex paint and a roller and you will be good to go. Just make sure the back is cleaned of any salt residue. Even then the paint won't stick too well and may require a couple coats

But try not to smoke the wall too badly in the process

 

[Shown_nuff]

I used plasti dip. works great. and I can remove it with just my finger nails. makes touching up easy

 

[Zer0.]

acrylic paint worked well for me, applied with a foam roller

 

[cloak]

I would go with one of those vinyl backgrounds they sell at the LFS too. (black or blue)

 

[thakki]

Do not use the background that the lfs sells...i did...for 4 weeks it was fine...then i started seeing lot of air bubbles and it looked horrible.

I recently painted a running tank...used a roller paint and acrylic paint...it looks great now.

 

[cloak]

You must have done something wrong then IMO. I have one on my 55 gallon freshwater tank that's about 25 years old and looks brand new. The one on my current 20 gallon reef tank is about 5 years old and it looks fine too. How did you apply it? It's not rocket science. Just cut to size, make sure the back glass is clean, and then apply it with 4 pieces of scotch tape. Piece of cake. Sometimes you can wedge it up into the plastic frame, but I prefer to run some duct tape all along the top edge to seal it shut.

 

[Carlosroach]

You can use the vinyl wrap they use for cars or some really dark tint

 

[Portsie]

I used sticky vinyl from a sign shop. Cut it to size and stuck it on. No way for salt creep to get in.