Painting back wall

[pirate]

Well I've drilled my tank and started to collect my peices to do the plumbing for the sump, but now I've run into another question. What do you paint the back panel of the tank with? Inside of the tank or outside? What color or is it a preference? Pros and cons to the color choice. I think it will be either blue or black and painted on the outside.
Thanks for all your inputs on these matters

[lastlight]

Inside would be acrylic. Outside for paint. My last tank was brushed/rolled with a black latex I believe and it held on very well.

[Funky_Fish14]

Lol if I may chime in about that tank - :razz:

The paint (yeah looks like latex) has stayed on... pretty well for the most part. Considering its latex i think its doing good. It is on the outside of course. I find that any firm pointed impact leaves a big mark, but the colour itself looks really good from the front of the tank. I dont know what is inside the overflow box (brett can you take a look at the thread and let me know what you think?)...

Like Brett said, acrylic (black or blue whatever) inside the tank if you want to do inside, but the problem that comes with that is if you need to scrape coraline off the back you need to make sure you use acrylic safe (plastic) 'blades" or scrub pads. Also the back can be scratched more easily. Inside or around an overflow box the acrylic is commonly used.

Krylon Fusion is wicked stuff... inside the tank, its fine, but if you want to spray the back outside then you can scrape the inside glass any-which way. If you spray evenly it leaves a beautifully smooth coat and stays on very well. I use it on ALL my tanks (all the backs are black). It comes in many colours.

Most people go with blue or black background for tanks... blue is nice, but personally I go with black.. It tends to add depth to the aquarium, and makes the contents stand out (and less attention drawn to the back glass than blue). One of my tanks is blue and you notice the tank colour a lot more and the attention is taken away from the contents. Pity because its starphire glass, lol. But it does make it look incredibly bright i find.

Sorry bout the essay!

Cheers,

Chris

[gobytron]

spray the outside....lol
use Krylon Fusion (Canadian tire sells it) and the color is really up to you.

[blacknife]

I went with Krylon fission as well. blue. i thought it looked good but i decided i liked the look of the window/outdoors shining through instead.

So i took a scraper to it and had it cleaned off in about 15 mins with another few minutes to vacuum it all up.

[monocus]

if you cant decide,get some solid colour plasticized christmas paper .i picked some up at the dollar store and taped it to the back of my tank-if i want to change the colour i just peel off the old and add new

[DiverDude]

Anyone over use window tint or the kind plastic film that stickes electrostatically ?

[Lampshade]

I went the ultimate DIY style... I have a sheet of cardboard that i cut to fit, painted it blue, and taped it on. It's lasted through 3 years as a freshwater tank and over a year on the saltwater now. My tank's against the wall, so I don't really care about the cardboard saying UHAUL on the back. Works well, but it also hasn't gotten wet, which i imagine would probably be the end of it. But.. if you feel creative... rockwall?

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1300282

[bioload]

Hope this helps

http://www.reefkeeping.ca/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=513

[Parker]

I've used black spraypaint ( on the outside ) several times without issue.

[pirate]

Well since my days off are here I guess I'll start to paint it. Any one paint it a different color? I was thinging a ocean blue/green. Like all those photos in scuba diving mags. Or just go with trusty black? Lots of work to be done this days.

[Funky_Fish14]

A friend and I used a double layer of Limo Tint on the back of his tank to black it out. But as a response to DiverDude:

You can get sheets of vinyl in black or blue or whatever colour that you apply in the same way as you would window tint. It makes a really smooth finish. I used to work at an aquarium manufacturing warehouse and we switched from using krylon to this vinyl on the backs of tanks.

[hound96]

heres one that'll get ya all goin i couldn't decide on black or blue either and i also had the thought that if i ever moved o may want my tank to be a room divider meaning it would have to be visible on both sides so get this i went to the closet and got a black garbage bag and taped it very tight to the back and it is still there after a few months and i think i'm gonna stick with it cuz it does a good job of taking atention away from the overflow box and when i decide to do the room divider all i have to do is take it off , i thought it was a pretty cool idea . what do you think?

[Pescador]

I used a sheet of acrylic from Home Depot painted it blue (light at top dark at bottom) and used velcro to hold it to the tank.
It pulls right off for cleaning the back and is still translucent and it kind of glows with light behind it and gives a real deep water look.