Painting the back of the tank

[Vagabond]

Just picked my tank up today (60g reef: 40w x 18d x20h) from InterAmerican.

I thought I would paint the back panel and am open to recommendations as to the preferred colour and/or suggested other background possibilities?

[reefnut]

ive always liked black or blue but thats just me.As far as a paint ive always used krylons no prep fusion for plastic but it works very good for glass no peeling or bubbling if it gets wet and it comes in a spray can.

[Vagabond]

Found this on RC sounds interesting so I think I will give it a try and post my results:

SIMPLE SOLUTION: VINYL

"I got a piece of black vinyl, though you can get blue or other colors. You can get it from any sign shop, or from automotive lettering folks. It's not very expensive.

You peel off the backing, and that side of the vinyl is adhesive. You take a water bottle mixed with a little Joy dish liquid and spray liberally on the sticky side. Then apply to the tank, using a squeegee, credit card, etc. to push the water bubbles to the edges. The water bubbles move very easily, as opposed to air bubbles which don't, so that's why you do it this way. Voila.

No water will get between it and the glass. It won't fall off. It won't scratch. It looks awesome. It's not toxic. You can remove it in 2 minutes, and you're tank is still perfect.

What's real cool is when it dries, there will be a slightly chalky appearance - this is from the dishliquid. I freaked, and called my friend who does sign work and yelled at him. He told me in a couple days, the chalk will literally disappear. I thought he was full of it, but it did. Completely gone.

Anyway, it's a very simple process, no worries about air bubbles or anything like that".

[Quinn]

A fellow on nano-reef.com put window tinting on the back of his tank with a great deal of success.

Personally I used a piece of spray-painted paper and other than being held on with electrical tape, it looks very good and has the advantages of being, firstly, customizable, and secondly, removable.

[StirCrazy]

I painted mine a medium blue with a acrylic marine paint.. durable as heck. If I had to do it again I would do it black as a black background seams to bring out the colors in the forground better.

Steve

[Vagabond]

I went with the flat black mactac vinyl idea. Picked it up at Stanley's Sign & Screen Supply for $5. A little water with a drop of dishwashing soap, sprayed on the adhesive side and it went on and smoothed out like a dream, no air bubbles. looks awesome!

[trilinearmipmap]

I bought a can of black spray paint but thinking about it if the back is going to get covered with corraline anyway why bother painting the back at all?