What color blue paint?

[bullshark]

Hello all, I am going to paint the back of my tank the blue color you see on the acrylic 'Blue Back' tanks. Does anyone know what shade or name it is called? Should I just take a small piece of the plastic background sheet with me to have it matched?
Thanks.

 

[justinx]

If thats the color you want, then have it matched. Or call an acrylic mfg and ask them what dye they use.
However, IMO, a darker blue looks much better. Another really nice effect is so use a shading effect. Darker blue on the bottom that fades to a lighter blue on top. Gives a very nice impression of depth, but beware, this takes a practice run or two to make sure you have desireable results.

 

[krux]

i bought equal parts of sky blue and black, and mixed them together in varying quantities to give a gradiation from bottom to top. i used translucent paint, so that i could use more coats and match up the shading. it took me about 5 coats using the paint, which could have been done in one coat of opaque paint, but that wasnt the look i was going for.

 

[justinx]

how bout a pic?

 

[krux]

well my camera which was supposed to be moving here today took a job in sacramento instead, so it is moving down there. next time a club member is over with a camera ill get a shot for you though.

 

[bullshark]

Well, I went to the local paint store and had it matched. I put on 3 coats over 2 days and I am very pleased with the results. While I was at it I painted the bottom of the tank flat black to reduce some reflections in case the sand bottom gets dug up a bit.(groupers!)

 

[zahner]

krux-
Were you ever able to get a picture of that gradient background? I'd love to see how it looks.
-zahner

 

[krux]

it is harder to see now that i have so much rock in the tank, but you can see the gradiation a bit better here when i have the actinics off. the really dramatic fade to black happens in the bottom third of the tank, which is now covered since i added another 40 lbs of lr to the tank.
hopefully this will give you some idea of what it looks like though, with actinics on it looks more washed out, the curse of a lower resolution camera and no tripod.

 

[zahner]

Cool. Thanks vm for the pic. I agree it is tough to see the effect once the lr has been added. I think I can kinda make it out in the center though. BTW, that is an interesting piece of rock positioned in the top right 1/3 of the tank, looks green and pink in this shot. Is that the hawaiian base rock that you mentioned elsewhere in another thread?
-zahner

 

[krux]

the red circles are around visible portions of the hawaii base rock in this photo, it is more visible form the sides, but as i wanted to showcase my 7 bucks a pound fiji i mostly covered it up.
the yellow arrow pointing at what i think you are referring to, is actually a 2 year study of mine on wether or not a chunk or rock i got out of a remote cove in cabo san lucas would effect my water parameters. it is commonly referred to as holey rock, and is composed of a high percentage of silicates. 2 years later, i have never been able to see any silicate changes in my water parameters... and as things arent dying, i am assuming no other toxic metals that test kits are not available for are leeching out either.
i just brought it with me because it almost took off half of my hand when a big swell smashed me into it, as i needed to show the sea that i was boss, i stole the offending protrusion immediately and inserted it into my own realm of control. now the rock is at my mercy!
it is green from green coraline algae, and the pink and purple are the more common varieties of coraline starting to outgrow the green.

 

[laudluvr]

The color that comes to mind is "Electric blue". The same as handicapped coloring. It might be called "handicapped blue" who knows.
If you mention either to paint mixers, they will guide you better.
BTW, is it safe to use any old paint on glass? Is it porous at all? I know water doesn't get out, but do chemicals keep out?