Painting back of the tank

[Tropical Paradise]

hi everyone,

I want to paint the back of my tank either blue or black. What brand of paint is good to use. Should I use acrylic, oil, or water based? And how should I apply the paint on, a brush or a roller?

Please be specific on how I should go about painting the tank. I know I have to paint several times and use light to make sure that it's completely covered. I appreciate your tips.

Kai-Wei

 

[Mouse]

You can get special spray paints for glass that retain some of the opacity. These would be very easy to apply, and would simply mean masking out areas you didn't want to paint. Go check out your merchants yard's (B&Q there called over here). I was going to paint the back wall of my tank a mixture between purple and dark blue in a wierd random pattern. I would sereously recomed gettting a pice of glass to practice on before you do it to your tank. On the other hand the glass at the back of the tank should be completely covered in corraline algie after about 6 months anyways, so bear in mind it will go eventually purple, unless you clean the glass regularly and allow space behing the rockwork to get the scraper in.

 

[Carpentersreef]

I don't know of any paint that WON'T stick. Whether we paint a house with latex or oil-based, there's still some scraping of the windows involved. And if you don't like the result, you can always use a razorblade and scrape it off.

Mousie, what's a B & Q?

You mean a hardware store?

Mitch

P.S., whatever you do, don't use primer first!

[ February 03, 2002: Message edited by: Carpentersreef ]</p>

 

[mariner]

Oil based paint!!!! Rustoleum works great.

 

[Bucktronix]

another option if your not sure about paint is, you can get a thin piece if acrylic or plastic cut to size and you just silicone it in place. the colored acrylic shouldn’t cost more than 15 bucks and it takes about 10 mins to install. i know for a fact you can get black and im pretty sure that other colors are stocked. the bonus is if you dont like it or want a change you can pull it down and stick something else back there. my lfs has done this on many tanks and it looks great.

 

[Anonymous]

Depending on the size of tank you have, you could use theatrical gel. It is colored plastic that is used to color lights. You can get it in about any color you want. One drawback is it comes in sheets 22x24 inches, cost is about $5. So if you have a tank larger that that, you need more than one sheet, and then you will have seams.

B

 

[Tropical Paradise]

Hi Mariner,

Rust-oleum is spary paint not liquid paint, correct?

Kai-Wei

 

[Tropical Paradise]

Thanks everyone,

Rustoleum was the name that I was looking for.

Kai-Wei

 

[bowfront]

Rust-oleum comes in both but you don't even need that. Cheap spray epoxy will work just as well and stick just fine to glass once it dries. Just make sure to mask off the parts you don't want to cover and cover the top of the tank with newspaper or plastic so paint spray doesn't get inside. I've done tank backs with brush and spray and brush leave brush marks. Spray is definitely better. I like the idea of a thin piece of colored acrylic also. BTW, multiple few light coats vs. one or two heavy coats always works best with spray.

 

[Bobzarry]

This method has been working great for me ...for the past 30 years or so.... just purchase some of the cheap, cut to order sheets of colored background at your local LFS. use a little vegetable oil and spread it all over the back glass. Then you can apply the background to the glass and squeegy out the air bubbles.( very simular to applying tint to a cars windows). this method has the effect of giving the impretion as if the backgraound had been painted on when you view the tank. It also has the ad vantages that it can pretty much be done to any tank at any time ( so long as you have the room to manuver behind the tank). and to remove all you have to do is peel it off (great for anyone who changes thier minds alot.......lol).


Bob

[ February 04, 2002: Message edited by: Bobzarry ]</p>

 

[Scottis24]

Don't forget the stupid mylar backgrounds found at petsmart. They come in black and blue as well as your favorite false reef background. A whole lot less mess than paint.......

 

[HARRISON]

I have done a couple different things. I have left them bare. I didn't like that cause you can see all the cords and stuff. I have painted them black with regular old home Depot spray paint. This works well and is reall easy. I have also just taped up blue wrapping paper on the back. It was cheap and a good color. I have used the Petco junk but the wrapping paper worked about the same. I much prefer a painted black back but thats me...