Painting a glass background!

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Lord Gaz

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 17, 2006
120
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Australia
I want to paint the back of my tank black. I'm thinking about spraying because it will be easier and probably less messy, but I'm open to suggestions. My tank is currently empty right now because I just got it, and I want to paint it before I put it against the wall. What sort of paint will I need? Will spray paint stick on a clean glass surface? When I asked one of the guys at my local hardware store, he said i needed something called a "etching", a clear base that i will need to apply before i apply the paint so it can hold on it, but then I went back later and asked another dude he told me there was no such thing! :nilly:

Can i just use normal acrylic paint, or will it just flake off?
 
Trust me, spraying is not easy.

Working on cars, i know spray style is not easy unless you have primer. The last thing you want to have is a background that looks like primer.

Roller works alot better. I have used epoxy paint for my 55gal.

All you need is the paint, rubbing alcohol, a small roller (finest material you can get), and paint thinner.

Clean the sides of the tank that you want to paint over really good with the alcohol. Then let it dry, should only take a few secs, and dont touch it with your hands or you will leave oil from your skin.

Then take your paint, and mix it in a 2nd container with paint thinner. Try to make it as water like as you can, dont be shy to use alot of thinner.

Now tape of your borders ect if you want.

Then take the roller and put on really thick layer. Going back and fourth lightly. Its going to be real slipperly and look like your just pushing puddles around, but you will get the hang of it and start covering the tank with paint. Then it will look like your paint thinner floated to the top, thats whant you want.

Pay alot of attention to the edges, tends to hide small gaps of paint and looks weird when your looking at it and light reflects through it. What i did was take a flash light, while painting put the light inside your tank. Any light that shines through...you need to paint over it.

When using the roller, you will see small bubbles, forming. Dont worry about it, the paint thinner will pop the bubbles and it will set a perfect even layer of paint.

Do a 2nd layer if you want the next day, but one layer works best for me. Expoxy dosnt really like to be layerd.

If you mess up the first layer, just take a razor blade and scrape it off, it will come off real easy.
 
I just clean it down with acetone,tape up the tank so only the side you want to paint is visable then spray it.I always use flat black as I think it looks better from the veiwig side.Ordinary black acrylic spray tins work fine.:)
You don't want to use something that etches your glass.Ordinary spray paint and then if you change your mind with colour it is easy to scrape off.
 
TipStylez;795648; said:
Trust me, spraying is not easy.
Click to expand...

From my experience....spraying tanks is VERY VERY easy...

I have done 10 or so tanks now and have not had any problems using spay paint.

Apply the first layer very very thin. This will give the other layers something to grip to.

After that...apply as many layers as it takes. Get a light in the tank so you can see where you have to go over.

And of course don't forget to clean the glass before you start painting :thumbsup:
 
Steve_89;795746; said:
From my experience....spraying tanks is VERY VERY easy...

I have done 10 or so tanks now and have not had any problems using spay paint.

Apply the first layer very very thin. This will give the other layers something to grip to.

After that...apply as many layers as it takes. Get a light in the tank so you can see where you have to go over.

And of course don't forget to clean the glass before you start painting :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

:iagree:

Lots of thin coats is the trick. It keeps it from running and make it more even.
It's really very simple. I always mask everything that I don't want painted. (most importantly, the top)
 
i have used colors like purple, dark blue, green and different shades of them mixed with black, just to give different looks and shades on my tanks, trick is always layers. once you do that its all up to you for design and style just experiment and have fun only takes a couple of hrs to to do, layer then let dry, then layer agian and dry and keep repeating to you have your desired effect. enjoy.
 
:headbang2

Cool! I'm gonan get some spray paint and do it right now!

Thanks guys for all your help!
 
Ive done roller and spray, and the easiest thing I have ever done on my tank was a black rolled on bg. Use a foam roller and flat latex black paint. Did 2 coats and it was fine, and 1 more for safety. Looks amazing. Good luck w/ yours.
 
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