Painting back of tank Black - For or Against?

[95harley]

As I plan another big tank I have found myself considering paint the back black to hide algae and crud. But it's one of those once you do it there is no undoing it things.
From the people here that have done it would you do it again, Pros or Cons to speak of?
Would you do it again?
Just hard to convince yourself to throw paint on a brand new tank.

 

[braydonosu]

I painted the back of my 40 dark blue and I love it. I see no disadvantages to painting. If you are really concerned that you wont like it long term, you can get a plastic background and they make some sort of adhesive that will create a seal that you can remove if you don't like it, but it still keeps water and dirt out.

 

[ahren]

i went to the local auto parts store & bought the darkest car tint i could get its really close to black & very easy to remove if you end up not liking it

 

[pontius]

it's really not about "hiding" algae and crud more than it's about hiding any power cords in the back and hiding the color of the wall behind the tank.
but yeah, I've painted the back of every tank I've ever had (a 72, 125, 135, 55, 30, and several 10s). if I started another tank tomorrow, I'd paint it. it just looks better than the tape on stuff and keeps the color from the lights and inhabitants inside the tank rather than bleedind out and mixing with the color of the wall.
I considered window tint as well. but you have to do it right and not get any air bubbles. and tint is just as permanant as paint, so I'd just paint. it's cheaper. $3 for 2 cans of spray paint and $2 for masking tape.

 

[stanlalee]

for it.

 

[shaggyblz]

Definately for the paint. It looks better with dark colors though. IMO

 

[culp]

I'm going to be painting the back of my new 125 gallon tank I'm setting up.

 

[jimvette1]

95 Harley
If your interested I asked the same question many months ago and here are a few of the responses:
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=328271
I finally ended up with a piece of plexi-glass cut to fit, painted black, taped to the back. You could paint one side blue if you wanted to to change things around!

 

[dschwartz]

I bought a piece of reversible tank backing material and used the black side - just taped on for easy changing or glass cleaning later. We had blue paper up before and I think I prefer the black - hides the cords, koralias, filter, etc.
David.

 

[pezenfuego]

I didn't paint. I used a background. I don't really care either way. I was going to paint it but ran out of spray paint and was apathetic. It wasn't a big deal to me because I planned on it being purple from coraline anyway.

 

[salt210]

for it. it adds depth to the tank imo

 

[drdingo21]

Originally Posted by 95Harley
http:///forum/post/2997450
As I plan another big tank I have found myself considering paint the back black to hide algae and crud. But it's one of those once you do it there is no undoing it things.
From the people here that have done it would you do it again, Pros or Cons to speak of?
Would you do it again?
Just hard to convince yourself to throw paint on a brand new tank.
We painted ours blue. But it can easily be undone.
My fiance spent an hour with a $6 scrapper and cleared all the old paint before we repainted it. It was on a 125 long, fyi

 

[jojo727]

every tank i've had i painted black. the most recent tank had blue acrylic INSIDE the tank and had the overflow built out of the same material so i had to take it all out, build new overflow out of black acrylic and paint the back of the tank black. i agree that black makes the tank look deeper.

 

[salami trigger]

I have painted the back outsides of many of my tanks...looks great.
I have always used latex paint...