Painting back black

[Duckman77]

I have painted the back on many of my aquariums using an acrylic paint. It looks very nice, but the paint scratches/chips pretty easily. I was considering painting the bottom and back of my 180 gallon with flat black spray paint. Any experience or thoughts on this? How hard is spray paint to remove later (if I ever sell it)? Does the spray paint adhere to the glass better or worse than the acrylic (will it chip or not)?

 

[gomezladdams]

As you said the paint comes off pretty easy so if yo wanted to get it all off you could do it pretty quick with a razor blade.
as for making it stick better you could sand the glass with a fine grit sandpaper but that would permanantly ruin the clarity

 

[fishmaven]

I was considering painting the bottom and back of my 180 gallon with flat black spray paint. Any experience or thoughts on this? How hard is spray paint to remove later (if I ever sell it)?

I'd use a background on the back, no chipping and then you've got an extra front if needed. Roughing up the bottom before painting is a good idea to get the paint to adhere properly.

 

[dmopar74]

black background is much easyer to remove(and put on) than paint, more durable, and proboably cheaper than paint. do u not want to use it for some reason?

 

[Duckman77]

My experience with the photograph background that you tape/adhere to the back of the tank is that inevitably water makes its way between the tank and background and/or air pockets form. This gives the background a sloppy appearance IMO.

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

RedTailFool has got some pictures of painted tanks that ive been waiting for...

maybe he will read this and post some here for us to see?

 

[fishmaven]

My experience with the photograph background that you tape/adhere to the back of the tank is that inevitably water makes its way between the tank and background and/or air pockets form. This gives the background a sloppy appearance IMO.

You're not doing it right. The background will go under the top frame.

I prefer using the whole background from top to bottom. I place the tank on it's face, clean it well with windex. (If you're worried about overspray going into the tank, either spray from the bottom of the tank or spray on a cloth and then use it.) Then I use the 2" wide Scotch invisible tape (I have used the 3/4" too) and tape COMPLETELY from end to end on the top and the bottom frame. I use a straight edge razor blade to trim the ends and then tape each end top to bottom. Unless I'm careless and cut the background somehow I've had the backgrounds last until I got tired of it or Wanted to move the tank from house to house. I've also used the same procedure to do store tanks AND display tanks. Some had the same backgrounds for 12 years or more.

I know that some people have used Elmer's glue to stick the background on. Elmer's dries clear. You'd still need to use tape to seal it. If you wanted to remove the background, you'd strip the tape then you soak the background and peel it off. A damp cloth removes the remainder of the glue.
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On a 180g, I'd use one of the Hagen 24" backgrounds. They have solid colors too.

 

[BrianOKC]

Here is a great tip using the photo backgrounds. Use alot of Vaseline and cover the entire back area and apply the background and squeege the air off. This prevents water from getting behind the background and leaving water stains. Ohh ya you cant even see the vaseline after u squeege it out and if you ever remove the background the vaseline will come right off with alittle windex and a rag.

 

[drgn1234]

i used cooking oil for my backgrounds i spead a nice thin layer and aply background then i use a credit card to smooth and remove air pockets and it workes real nice

 

[rallysman]

paint it and then tape the entire back.
The tape will protect the paint