Can you guys give me some pointers on how to paint a background on a glass tank. What types of paint, how many coats, etc. I am probably going to paint mine either a light blue or black. I've heard of a lot of people doing this and thought I'd give it a try. I dont' seem to have any luck with backgrounds so I thought I'd try this route.
Painting a background?
- Thread starter jmccown
- Start date
grendl
New member
If you can get your tank outside or in a garage with alot of air, I would recommend painting it with spray paint. You can do a forum search for the type of paint others have used to do this.
I used a brush & glopped on (literally glopped on) black super gloss I got from Lowes. I cleaned the back of the tank & globbed it on for the 1st coat... Laying it on as thick as I could (the runs in the paint show on the back, but not on the inside of the tank) then let it dry. That gave the final coat something to adhere to... since it doesnt stick to glass very well. The outside back of the tank is ugly, but no one sees that.
I would have likely used spraypaint, but I wasnt going to lug the 90 outside & back... so I went the cheap & easy route.
I used a brush & glopped on (literally glopped on) black super gloss I got from Lowes. I cleaned the back of the tank & globbed it on for the 1st coat... Laying it on as thick as I could (the runs in the paint show on the back, but not on the inside of the tank) then let it dry. That gave the final coat something to adhere to... since it doesnt stick to glass very well. The outside back of the tank is ugly, but no one sees that.
I would have likely used spraypaint, but I wasnt going to lug the 90 outside & back... so I went the cheap & easy route.
cb9tunerguy
New member
i just used regular old artist acrylics. then i gave it a good coat of krylon plastic fusion spray paint for a little add protection. heres a link with pics. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=872820
JasonGraves
New member
I recently painted the back of a tank and I used krylon fusion (gloss black) it took about 7-8 light coats to avoid runs and drips. Allow about 5-10 minutes between each coat for it to dry. Also clean the outside of the glass with rubbing alcohol before painting.
stevebeaver
New member
i used limo black 2% window tint, works the best and is removable
fishmon
New member
Just doing one tank I would go with spraypaint, I prefer dark blue though JMO. Helps make the tank look brighter I feel. we used oil based paint at the shop, but considering we were painting more than 100 tanks, a roller worked best. Latex peels when it gets wet, Oil takes a while to dry but holds up for a long time.
