Painting Back of Tank?

[phxjosh]

I am planning on painting the back of my tank, and looking for some advice.
I have a few black lights laying around, and I had an idea, I would like to use black like paint to paint the tank, I want to paint in a coral reef using the paints, something simple, and then use a lot of blues for the rest of the background for the water.
I am not sure what type of paint it is, but should it matter? Also, do I need to prep the glass beforehand?
I have two 24" black lights I plan to set up somehow behind tank lights, and use them at night before bed since I am up until 2am usually.
What do you guys think? Any tips?

 

[wydah]

Hi,
I don't see why your black light paints could not be used to paint the exterior back of your tank. I just painted my tank with a flat black Rustoleum brand. The only prep I did was to clean the back glass good with some isopropyl or rubbing alcohol.
Also, you might not need to use your "black lights" at all. The "Actinic" lights that are often used over our reefs are nearly the same light wavelength (420nm) as black lights which I believe is around 400nm or less. So your black light paint may show fine using the same regular actinic lights that our photosynthetic reef inhabitants enjoy.

 

[slider101]

Same here for me. I just cleaned the back good and used Rust Oleum flat black. I brushed it on and took 2 coats but came out perfect from the inside looking out. Just clean, clean, clean when it comes to painting anything. Good luck to you!

 

[silverdak]

no one scuffs the back first??? I have painted a few tanks in my local store and ALWAYS scuffed the back with a scotch bright pad. and they all came out great and still look great with no peeling at all for 3ish years now

 

[slider101]

Originally Posted by SilverDak
http:///forum/post/2892094
no one scuffs the back first??? I have painted a few tanks in my local store and ALWAYS scuffed the back with a scotch bright pad. and they all came out great and still look great with no peeling at all for 3ish years now
I usually always scuff everything before I paint it but was afraid to do the glass in case I ever wanted to use the other side I could scrape it, which I have already had to do after I tried to spray paint it and it didn't turn out to smooth. All nice and smooth now.

 

[phxjosh]

Originally Posted by WYDAH
http:///forum/post/2892047
Hi,
I don't see why your black light paints could not be used to paint the exterior back of your tank. I just painted my tank with a flat black Rustoleum brand. The only prep I did was to clean the back glass good with some isopropyl or rubbing alcohol.
Also, you might not need to use your "black lights" at all. The "Actinic" lights that are often used over our reefs are nearly the same light wavelength (420nm) as black lights which I believe is around 400nm or less. So your black light paint may show fine using the same regular actinic lights that our photosynthetic reef inhabitants enjoy.
I was planning on using 1 or 2 of those 50/50 actinic bulbs, along with a 10k or 20k bulb to support some soft corals, so I will see how it looks.

 

[mkzimms]

Originally Posted by WYDAH
http:///forum/post/2892047
Hi,
I don't see why your black light paints could not be used to paint the exterior back of your tank. I just painted my tank with a flat black Rustoleum brand. The only prep I did was to clean the back glass good with some isopropyl or rubbing alcohol.
Also, you might not need to use your "black lights" at all. The "Actinic" lights that are often used over our reefs are nearly the same light wavelength (420nm) as black lights which I believe is around 400nm or less. So your black light paint may show fine using the same regular actinic lights that our photosynthetic reef inhabitants enjoy.
i also used rustoleum flat-black spray on epoxy, only some cleaning prep. i feel like any scuffing will show in the inside glass.

the wavelength of black lights that causes florescence is 320 and they are use a heavily filtered glass at the visual spectrum. Because blacklight-reflective paints will absorb photons in the under 400nm range, non-filtered 420nm bulbs (like actinics) will only kind of work. its worth a shot, but wont be as spectacular as you think.

 

[phxjosh]

Alright, well since I already have the blacklights, I will just use those at night. Hopefully they will go trhough the water to light it up.

 

[silverdak]

I will get pictures next time I am at the store to show you the tanks i scuffed and painted. doesn't show on the inside at all. the scuffs are VERY faint and just rough up the surface a bit, the paint when sprayed on fills those little cuts if you will and makes it so you can't see them at all. I do paint work on cars as a small side job so i wouldn't lie to ya haha

 

[phxjosh]

I might just go with a black background, the blacklight idea sounds nice, but knowing my poor artistic skills, it will turn out bad.

 

[mkzimms]

a black stick-on background wont go well... better to paint, i looks a hell of a lot better. its really not hard.

 

[phxjosh]

I was just going to use some black spray paint. I found some translucent paint, it's like a neon blue, it won't completley make it see through, it might work well, not sure yet.

 

[subielover]

You might find this interesting.
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/show...ght=experiment