Blue or Black?

[+Hydro]

I'm having a hard time deciding wether to use black paint on the back or a dark blue color on the back of our new tank. I'm torn, black doesn't look natural at all but makes the fish and corals more noticeable but dark blue is a natural color and may blend in better.

[+mcallahan]

Black..it fades from view.

Blue screams, "I'm painted blue!!"

[theresa]

Black, it makes everything stand out more and give more dementional (?) look. Blue is my favorite color but the black brings the corals out much better. GO BLACK

[+August]

I like black.. I think it shows the corals and fish better which is ultimately the most important

[GKarshens]

I disagree (big surprise). I had a dark blue background on my 125 and really liked it. The corals still stood out, but it looked more like distant ocean than black does. I bet you never even noticed my background was blue did you Marc?

[GKarshens]

Here is a pic:

[+KeeperOfTheZoo]

Does it matter? At the rate they get covered in coraline the back will be purple in no time regardless of what you want.

I've seen back walls covered in gsp which I also think is cool. I have a bunch growing on my back wall right now and I think I'm gonna encourage some yellow polyps as well.

All that said my tank is black and I like it much better than the bright blue. Dark blue might be neat though.

[+Hydro]

Here is a pic:

That is the blue I'm considering, its almost black. Do you remember exactly what color that is and where you got it?

[+mcallahan]

well Gabe, if that's blue, it looks black to me.

Just don't paint it light blue.

[+Hydro]

Don't worry, no light blue!

[cmanning]

well Gabe, if that's blue, it looks black to me.

Just don't paint it light blue.

Mark,

The reason why it looks black to you is because your color blind. Midnight blue, navy blue or even black is better than light blue....IMO. In a case, it's what you like that matters.

[GKarshens]

It's not paint. It is Coroplast. It is basically plastic cardboard. I got it at Regal Plastics. It is $15 for a 4' x 8' piece. It is rigid and stood up over the almost 4 years I had that tank. Nice thing is you can remove it if you need to for maintenance or to see something behind the tank.

[medi]

Hmm...very interesting. How did you attach it to the glass?

[+Hydro]

Hmm...very interesting. How did you attach it to the glass?

They make adhesive that glues them to the glass, supposed to look the best that way.

[absolut_racer]

I used Oracal Intermediate sign vinyl on my 58-Gallon. It's outdoor grade and rated for 6 years. I figured if I didn't like it, I would heat it up, peel it off, and change the color.

If anyone wants to try this out, let me know.

[JamesL]

I am in the camp for having a black background. But a really dark blue like Gabes looks nice also.

[Gonzobob]

recommendation would be to hang it a 1/4" or so behind the glass. Painting the glass or attaching backgrounds directly to the glass have been shown to negatively impact light levels (PAR) in the tank.

[The_Colonel]

Its personal preference, I have always liked black on tanks that are not too deep (front to back) and blue on deeper tanks (30+" front to back). I like some of the ideas up-thread about doing something so you can change it later.

[Derekreefer]

Great thread...I'm going to go and pickup a sheet of this Coroplast......thanks Gabe

[wayneb]

Although I'm giving serious thought to the Coroplast also, do have a couple of

questions concerning the paint. What type, brand is best for glass? Should it

be matte, semi-sheen, or shiny? Any special prep to the glass required besides

being a clean surface?

thanks,

wayneb

[+Hydro]

No prep to the glass besides cleaning, I used oil based semi gloss EXTERIOR paint....ended up getting navy blue and I'm very happy with it.

The paint is not permanent and can always be cleaned off with a razor blade, so don't feel overly commited if you do paint it.

One tip is to scrape off any silicone that you can from the glass, paint does not stick to it very well at all. It must be scraped completely off of the glass, even a thin film will cause problems with the paint.

[+Timfish]

I vote black

[mbender04]

Ok after looking at gabes tank I think I'm going to go the way of very dark blue too. I have had black for some time now and I think I wanna try something different.

[+Hydro]

So I found a really nice navy blue and I painted the back and sides of the tank, looked awesome until I put in the 2 black overflow covers in there. The black overflows against the blue paint did not look good and was very noticable.

So....I scraped off all of the blue paint and repainted with a semi gloss pure black.

Including the time picking paint, having it mixed twice, 2 coats of blue, scraping it all off, 2 coats of black, I wasted a lot of time....

[+mcallahan]

So I found a really nice navy blue and I painted the back and sides of the tank, looked awesome until I put in the 2 black overflow covers in there. The black overflows against the blue paint did not look good and was very noticable.

So....I scraped off all of the blue paint and repainted with a semi gloss pure black.

Including the time picking paint, having it mixed twice, 2 coats of blue, scraping it all off, 2 coats of black, I wasted a lot of time....

not gonna say it...not gonna say it.