the pro's and con's

[b_rabun1]

of painting the back of tanks blue or black.what do you guys think.the black may not show dirty as bad where it is hard to clean from rock.i have just had blue but i'm thinking of going black on my new tank.any input from some who have done both?

thanks

 

[fsn77]

We didn't paint our tank, just used a bought background that was blue on one side and black on the other. We really thought we'd like the blue, but after I put it up my wife made me change it to the black. We think the black looks better, although now it's about 1/2 covered with coralline, so at this point I'm not sure it matters much for our tank.

 

[whiteshark]

I painted mine blue, wish I woulda went black...

 

[b_rabun1]

whiteshark,
can you tell me why you wish you had gone black.

 

[whiteshark]

I just don't like the blue. It is like you said, it shows every spec of algea. I also feel that it kinda draws attention to the background as opposed to the corals and what not because of how light is is. The darker the background, the more I feel attention is brought to the corals and fish in the foreground.

 

[Salty Brother]

I didnt paint my new tank, but I have a black backround and really like it, It hides the equipment really well, you cant really see my overflow box. And it makes a nice contrast with corals and fish.

 

[McCrary]

I have dark blue on my 110 and 27 (the plastic kind) I am going to be switching to black painted background.

 

[xtrstangx]

Pros of black:
It looks the best:

Cons of black:
None

---------

Pros of blue:
Can make the tank look a little deeper

Cons of blue:
Doesn't look as good as black

 

[JmLee]

yeah i rock a black backround as well. I think blue looks kinda ugly, although dark blue may look nice.

 

[Kaos]

I have black on my 55 and really like it. As Salty Brother said it creates a nice contrast for the fish and coral. To me, it seems like it draws more attention to the critters and stuff inside the tank. A friend of mine painted his 75 blue and after seeing mine, wishes he'd painted it black.

 

[b_rabun1]

thanks for the input, keep it on maybe some pics of both.

blue vs black

 

[spence15610]

I have one tank with a blue back ground and one with black - The black looks much better

 

[Nano_reeflover]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=877611

 

[Serioussnaps]

black or not at all...blue stands out and looks unnatural

 

[mfp4073]

Has anyone ever done a 2 tone black and blue? My tank is already setup without paint, but I was going to add a background plastic color sheet. I am thinking about painting it. Maybe top 1/3 dark blueish and bottom black. Maybe top a lighter blue and the bottom a deep blue. in the ocean (when diving), if you are at depth, its gets dark when looking down at a distance, but lighter as you look up.

 

[hangles]

I painted mine a dark deep blue and i like the way it looks with the actinics i have. seems to give depth to my 75g.

 

[ERICinFL]

When I bought my tank, the guy I got it from painted the back blue. I set it up and after a few months, decided to scrape off the blue and paint it black. I think the corals, fish and rock stand out much better. Black is a much more neutral color than blue.

 

[pettee86]

My $.02 choice is black. Coral and fish stand out aginst it.
After a while hopefully it all gets covered.

 

[SDguy]

Blue only looks best like the first week, and even then not better than black, IMO. Back in the day when I was a LFS employee, whenever we wanted to sell a fish quicker, we put it in a black backed tank. On that note, I have no idea why the owner had a row of yellow backed tanks??? That's right folks, yellow!

 

[masterqaz]

black has the best contrast for yuo dont generally see anything in a reef tank that is black (fish and coral wise) whereas blue isnt as good in contrast for you can have many blue fish and corals that just seem to disapear into the background. Black over blue anyday.