Paint background or not?? PICS inside....

[BlueAbyss]

I think the blue makes the rockwork stand out (nice job, BTW).

[mike31154]

Looks real nice, but I have to say, I'm in the au natural camp. Then again, my next set up will be viewable from 3 sides, only one short side, the one with the overflow, will be anywhere near a wall. If you're painting glass tank sides, might as well go for the old plywood except for the front build. In the end, it needs to look good to you and your family. We're just looking at a photo, you have to live with it every day. Very nice blue.

[Piscez]

Thanks guys for all the response, quite a majority in favour of the blue, going black was a consideration as suggested but I just like the blue so much better and when I had my 33 gal it came with some film type paper background blue on one side and black on the other, granted the blue fish didn't stand out as much with the blue back ground but all the other fishes colours really popped more with the blue vs the black. I also always really liked the deepness of that blue and interestingly enough this paint colour matches that paper blue as close as it gets IMO. One could mix blue tones all day trying to achieve a natural ocean look and never succeed with all the hues the ocean brings but this colour really gives some depth. With having a white wall background and the wife not wanting me to change to any aquarium relative wall colour I find that the back of the tank's appearance a little lost somehow. I hate it when I get on the fence about trivial things!!!!

[lastlight]

Between natural and blue I'd definately choose natural.

Black is a must in my opinion. I went to great lengths to finally get my overflow interior black as well. Painted with same paint as back of tank then I siliconed a piece of glass against it so it never contacts the water in my overflow.

[BlueAbyss]

Black would be my choice over blue every time also.

[Leah]

I was wondering did you use a roller to paint it? I have a blue plastic background I bet
the paint would look way better. And did you cover the top of the tank in anyway before
you painted. I was worried to paint the house because of the fumes. I am guessing this
is no big deal.

[Myka]

There was a thread like this a while back and instead of it being "natural vs blue" it was "black vs blue", and black won.

Leah, I've used bother rollers and paint brushes to paint my tanks. It takes 2-3 coats to get a good non-translucent color going. The only shabby thing is that is does scrape off easily when you're messing around behind the tank. It's easy to touch up though!

[Piscez]

Originally Posted by Leah

I was wondering did you use a roller to paint it? I have a blue plastic background I bet
the paint would look way better. And did you cover the top of the tank in anyway before
you painted. I was worried to paint the house because of the fumes. I am guessing this
is no big deal.

I used a foam brush, the blue plastic has a tendancy to lift from the glass espcially if you get some water back there, where as obvious the paint doesn't allow that, but to each their own. I do have glass covers which I put on as a precaution but I realy don't think it's neccessary. I happen to have a window close by for good ventilation and it dries very quickly. I needed 3 coats. As Myka mentioned it's easy to scrape off any way. Thanks again everyone I appreciate your input the colour really is a personal choice, I was more at odds with leaving it natural or painted.

[Leah]

Thanks~Piscez

[Jack]

Use latex based paint instead, it works great. Tremclad has a lot of harsh fumes.