Painting the back of your tank - does color matter?

[ChadO]

Hello,

I have an 75 gallon AGA tank that I am planning to paint the outside back. My first thought was like a flat black, but I got to wondering if that is the best color, or is maybe a darker blue preferred? For that matter, do the livestock really seem to care at all, or is it purely asthetics that come in to play - i.e. helping hide the equipment, etc? Also, any recommendations of paint that have worked well for you would be great. I have no preference, just something that has worked well for folks.

Thanks!

ChadO

 

[colin779]

I think its just a preference thing. I personally like black, i took the lazy approach though and my local petco or petsmart (cant remember which) sells double sided aquarium background, ones side blue and one side black. I just attached that to the back of the tank (black side) and i think it looks the same as paint. Grand total of like $6 i think and i was able to do it with the tank already in place.

This is the black on mine, not even super visible once the back of the tank gets covered in stuff.

 

[rainydave]

I used Krylon Fusion spray paint on the back and bottom of my 40b. It held up for the year that I had the tank up. On my current Oceanic 58 I used the same to paint the upper and lower trim. It was a woodgrain and I preferred the black. It's been holding up wonderfully.

 

[Krish]

Purely aesthetics and no fish will be mad at you You can go with any color you like. In most cases, it will turn purple anyways when covered with coraline if you don't keep the back wall scraped. On my 75 gal I used blue acrylic. Got a piece cut and siliconed it on the inside. Came out really nice.


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[mercenary-grunt]

i agree with krish. one thing to add is that if you are placing the tank in front of a window then you will want the darker coolers to block the light comming in from outside. even tho the light is sun from outside, it gets defuesd somuch that you are very in the wrong light spectum. and will allow alge to grow very easily.

 

[mcoomer]

I've always been a fan of the black background. I don't know if it does anything for the fish but I suspect that it helps create the dark little hidey holes that they swim to when they're spooked. Tanks with blue backgrounds always seem too bright to my eye. I'm going to use black vinyl on the 58G I'm putting in the garage.

Mike

 

[BigAl07]

If you paint it (and I did paint my 90g with Black Fusion) you'll want to make it several very light coats and use a flashlight from outside the tank to look for any "thin" areas. My tank was up and running for over 3 years and the paint never even started to show signs of aging, cracking, or peeling.

One thing to consider (and it only matter for the first 6 months or so unless you do intend to scrape the back glass) that anything that physically touches the glass completely alters the reflectivity properties of the glass. Instead of being reflective and bouncing light waves back into the tank it absorbs them. Look at your tank from a side pane and notice how CLEAR glass looks mirror-like but a painted, skinned, applied glass doesn't look like that. James Fatherree wrote about this and spoke about this at MACNA a couple of years ago.

 

[Darthv247]

+1 for black. or you dont have to paint it. u could get a colored sheet and use some of that sticky stuff they sell just for the job.

 

[WABlonde]

Has anyone thought to do some fun colors other than the standard blue/black?

 

[Krish]

Has anyone thought to do some fun colors other than the standard blue/black?

She lives!!! :lol:. Jason (Sherman) had the best background ever he painted. I tried to post it here a few months back but the picture was x out. I'll ask him to send it to me to post but he took dark blue (almost black) and faded it out towards one corner of the tank at the top where it got lighter with paint. It almost looked like you were 100ft down looking up at the surface and saw a glimmer of the sun. Amazing!!!


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[jrgilles]

Mine is purple, but it is all coraline algae

 

[jgalvin]

+ 1 for black (flat black krylon paint from home depot), i personally find blue cheezy looking.

 

[smitty]

A friend of who no longer is in the hobby said he used to use mirror type window tint so it made his tank look deeper. I never saw it so I can't say how well it worked.

 

[ac7av]

I personally believe the color of the back of the tank may dictate what actually will grow on the back glass. The reason I say that is on my tank which I used black limousine tint on the tank absolutely no green algae grows on it, But green algae sure grows well on the front and side that's are not tinted. I don't know why that's the case but It clearly does something to the algae that grows on the back of the tank.

 

[mercenary-grunt]

I dont belive it will make a difference. I think that the black hid the algae you didnt see.

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[ac7av]

Well that might be the case but after two and half years it's freakishly clean and I don't ever clean it. If I don't clean the glass on the front and sides every week it gets so heavily covered you can't see through it. Maybe it has something to do with that mirrored effect that was mentioned a few Posts ago. After reading that post I had never really paid that close attention to the way the glass looked inside the tank. Front panel appears to look silvery mirrored but the back panel doesn't reflect any light.