tzqng8

In another thread there was talk about some people painting the back and possibly bottom of their fish tank instead of using a background or what have you.

What are the common thoughts on this practice? Does anyone have any idea what kind of paint would need to be used? Just curious!

Shawnie

uh oh whats on your mind tz? LOL I love it when you brainstorm...and most water proof paints are great......what is brewing in that creative brain of yours?

tzqng8

Um..oh...nothing. Just curious!

While putting the background on the 30g this weekend, I realized what a PAIN it is to do it right... Painting the back and bottom of tank like a dark blue could be really cool. And they have an AWESOME 150g at Pet Smart with a stand and everything for less than $500... Just sayin'...

Shawnie

uhhuh! sure...only downfall is its permanent and you cant change it unless you scrape it off..then u take a chance of scratching the glass...

tzqng8

Yeah, permanancy... Can't be afraid of commitment!

So "normal" waterproof paint works fine, eh? Do they sell special paint for glass? lol

Shawnie

oh im sure they do..stained glass shops would be best to call ...what kind of theme are you looking to do? or just a solid color? u got me so curious

tzqng8

Well, I think that is the cool thing about the ability to paint the glass. You could do patterns or a mural or just a solid color. Whatever you wanted and your ability would allow you to do.

My mind first got stuck on a solid color that would bring out the colors of the fish you wanted to stock the tank with. Then I started thinking about painting the back like the night sky; black with pinpoints of whiteish lights for stars. Or, light blue with puffy white clouds. Whatever! It would just be cool to do and you'd never have to worry about the milar backgrounds getting wet or coming of or whatever.

Just an interesting idea, me thinks.

Shawnie

I AGREEEE! its a great visual...now "git er done" LOL

jdhef

Generally the lfs has painted blue backgrounds (at least in my neck of the woods), so maybe you could ask what they use.

Also, this is pretty obvious, but remember, in reverse painting you paint the foreground first and the background last.

Good luck

goggles

hi there nice thread, i would just like to let you know that i am a pretty keen artist and to paint the back of your tank would be a great idea but you must remember that if you are goung to do some kind of pattern then what you think you are painting on the back.... when you look at it from the front of the tank will not be the same thing. to achive the picture you realy want you would have to paint it on the inside so you can see what you are producing or get a pro to do it. hope this helps and good luck.

Butterfly

You never ever want to paint the inside of the tank. Paint contains some type of petroleum product and can kill the fish.
With enough practice you could paint a scene on the outside back and make it look cool. i wonder if you had a mirror facing the tank if that would help you know what and how to paint your scene
Many breeders paint the backs, ends and bottoms of breeding tanks. I have several a friend gave me and I just scraped the paint off. Not a scratch in the bunch
Carol

MrWaxhead

I use black avery or 3m vinyl from any local sign shop, you just get a piece that is cut to the same size of your tank back and get them to apply application film or pre mask to the material (makes the material more workable for people that don't normally work with vinyl). Then you just use painters tape to tape it to the back of the tank, make a tape hinge peel the material back to the hinge and apply in even passes with a squeegee (i like the 3m pa-1 gold squeegee) working the film to the edge of the tank, then you remove the tape hinge and peel back about half of the material and start to make your passes back the other way while slowly removing the backing until you reach the other side.

You end up with the look of a painted backing not the uneven garbage bag look, and its 100% removable and creates no fumes like paint and can be done while a tank is up and running as long as you have some space in behind to work.

Chief_waterchanger

The trick to removing the paint is to use a new/still sharp razor blade. Tilt the blade at a slight angle and scrape paint. (Never scratch back and forth with blade exactly perpendicular to glass.. that not only doesn't remove paint efficiently, but would run a risk of scratching the glass. But it isn't exactly rocket science.

tzqng8

Wow, lot of activity over night! Thanks everyone! Couple things:

• I knew about the front to back and the image beign bakcwards things. That is why I was thinking of simple things. Polka dots, stripes, starry sky, etc. I'm not an artist by any means anyway.
  
• I would never paint the inside of the tank myself. There probably is a way to do it, though. Some paints must be safe for your fish being that the decorations that many of us use for our fish are painted. Again, not something I would ever do, just saying.
  
• I love the idea of the vinyl, but that sounds hard.
  
• Thanks for the tips on scraping the paint off! Now I don't have to commit to anything but the fish (and my wife)!

Barbrella

I would never put anything permanent on my tanks. I just KNOW I would end up having one of those "What on earth was I thinking"?? moments.

I just buy large sheets of black construction paper from the dollar store for my backgrounds.