Painting tanks?

[hollyfish2000]

I'm toying with painting the back of my new tank rather than using the usual black background poorly adhered per my usual lack of skill.

What are the pros and cons of painting the glass?
A particular kind of paint needed?
How do you avoid streaks, etc.?
How long does it take to dry?

Any advice welcome

 

[mscichlid]

Phil just brought this up.

http://www.capitalcichlids.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10558

 

[hollyfish2000]

Interesting conversation. I"m going to try it on the bottom first, I think. Maybe dark blue spray paint in matte . . . Two coats? I"m afraid to do the brush on paint that Tony mentions. Don't you get streaks?

 

[Nathan]

you do on the outside of the tank, but you wont notice them from the inside since the glass is flat.

 

[Norm66]

I've used latex paint with a roller on all three of my tanks and love the effect. It takes some patience to let the coats dry. I think I did about 4 or 5 waiting 45-60 minutes between coats. It also chips fairly easy but it couldn't be easier to fill in the chips and scratches.

Spray paint might coat in fewer coats, but you'd have to do it outside. All of mine I did inside in the air-conditioning and two of them were running with fish in them at the time.

 

[hollyfish2000]

I'm all about doing it inside and not carrying the tank up and down two flights of stairs. I'll try the smaller rollers and see how it works. Thanks guys!

 

[dogofwar]

Some of my tanks have contact paper backgrounds. Looks nice although it was done prior to me buying them.

Matt

 

[Norm66]

I should have mentioned that I just taped off the rims and used a 4" roller. I thought I'd gotten newspaper on the wall to protect it, but there is some black spray on the green wall from overloading the roller. Luckily my wife hasn't noticed it yet. ;^)

Another thing I've wondered if there would be a visible difference between matte, satin, semi-gloss and glossy from the inside of the tank full of water. I used satin because that's what I had on hand but I've decided next stand I build will get at least semi-gloss to make keeping it clean easier. I'd probably get enough that I could use it on the back of the tanks too. Does anyone know?

 

[Ophelia77]

We spray-paint ours inside

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

We spray-paint ours inside

That explains a lot

 

[Ophelia77]

:jumping0045:^^^^^ :jumping0045: :tongue0011:




:glare:

 

[minifoot77]

That explains a lot

whacha tryin to say?

 

[mscichlid]

^LOL. I'm lazy and hate painting. Usually I try to find formica remnants or black felt. Had some black vinyl once.

 

[hollyfish2000]

Painted the bottom black and back a dark navy. Two coats and done. Looked at it with the LED lights (no water yet) and looks great. Easy and like the look!

 

[minifoot77]

Painted the bottom black and back a dark navy. Two coats and done. Looked at it with the LED lights (no water yet) and looks great. Easy and like the look!

good cause thats what really matters don't get hung up on the "norm" do what you want if you like the way it looks keep doin it

 

[Diogenes]

I feel like I should mention, in case your considering a planted tank, that there's an article in TFH about black and blue backgrounds. They actually took a PAR meter and measured the amount of light at various depths in black and blue tanks. The results were astounding. You lose a lot of light to absorption in the bottoms of tanks painted blue or black, and in tanks using blue or black stick on backgrounds. I think they concluded that it was best to paint your tank white (which looks like crap IMO) or have a mirror background (which i do on one tank and it makes it really hard to take pics).

 

[hollyfish2000]

That is interesting. I don't plan to make this a planted tank, but both of my other planted tanks have black backgrounds and black substrate.