Painted Backgrounds on Tanks

[thor32766]

Hello,
I am in the stages of setting up my 220 gallon tank. As far as backgrounds, I dont want the old type where you tape in on the back. Does anybody have pics of their tanks with painted backgrounds to see what they look like. Or any advice is also welcome.

thanks for your time
brian

 

[patharm]

Get the Royal Blue acrylic paint they sell in Ace Hardware. Don't make the mistake I made and purchased the Royal Blue outdoor paint they sell at Home Depot unless you are looking for a light blue appearance. Check out my gallery if you want to see look of my painted background. Oh, and it's a 220 Perfecto as well.

Patrick

 

[ThunderousTalon]

i'd go with krylon fusion, go with black as well. Blue absorbs entirely too much color and is distracting imo.... colors pop a whole lot more w/ black.

 

[robb_brennan]

The 75 you bought was painted with lack acrylic from ACE. I used the store brand on that one. Just make sure you put a few light coats on whichever tank you spray! Thats why if you look at teh tank when its sitting in front of a light you can see through a few spots, I ran out of Paint!

 

[thor32766]

well what a choice i have to make. thanks again for the tank rob.

 

[DaveG99]

Just leave it clear and eventually it will be purple with coraline algae anyway.

 

[rdmpe]

IMO roll on latex is the way to go. With some latex and a cheap roller, you will be done painting that thing in about 2 minutes with no masking, no overspray. It will go on nice and even and thick. I have spraypainted tanks before and IME it is WAY more of a PITA than rolling latex paint on. You can go to home depot and get any color you want. Dark purple would probably look good, I used black and am happy with it. I'd offer to take a picture of it, but believe me, it doesn't come out looking like anything in a picture. Just looks black If you want to try to see it, here are some pics... http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=6988998#post6988998

 

[Opiy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7008431#post7008431 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ThunderousTalon
i'd go with krylon fusion, go with black as well. Blue absorbs entirely too much color and is distracting imo.... colors pop a whole lot more w/ black.

Even though im not from Fl. I thought I might post a comment to help you decide... I agree with ThunderousTalon, I have used the Kyrlon Fusion on 2 different tanks now and I LOVE it. Its easy to apply and it doesn't come off easy either. It is also cheap, I think $3 a can or so. I just used newspaper to wrap up all the places I didn't want overspray to go and taped up the edges so only the glass would get the spray. If you do choose to use the spray make sure you wipe the back of the tank off good and make sure its clean then take your time and make sure you get a good even coating. HTH Good luck.

 

[Cprowler]

I used black Tremclad and rolled it on. I used blue on some fresh water tanks a few years ago and I like the black way better, and as Dave mentioned it will be covered in coraline in a few months anyway.


When I first did it.

3 months later

 

[cschweitzer]

Black is always nice...Like everyone said, doesn't really matter after a year