To paint or not?

[Heidi]

oh man I love that Miz! Next tank for me maybe I will try it. Is that inside or outside the tank? Made out of styrofoam? Wonder how it holds up.

[cg5071]

I didnt look at the clip but if you want to try sculpting a background of some sort (foam ect.), ciclid tank builds do alot of that. aquaria central or something.

My first tank was not painted and my second was. From now on I will have them painted or a solid color. Color is a personal choice but black is my fave, it looks endless. I have an acrylic that the back is the color of the blue on the edges of the forum boards. Nice but IMO the black is nicer. Painted, you dont see cords ect all hanging down the back of the tank a much cleaner look IMO.

[MizTanks]

Having painted the back of my tank (FW) once already, I found it to be a *PITA* speaking of which I am going to have to scrape it off before I put it up. I had a hob filter and every time I had to remove the FM it would scratch the paint. So Ive decided to go with Blue Water backing. I found it at Forster&Smith. If done right it should look great.

@Heidi: It is on the inside. Which to me is a wonderful idea. What a great place to put frags and have little places that fish can rest upon. I'm sure it could be scaled down to fit just about any tank and made thin so as not to take up to a lot of space. One very cool thing this guy did, was created it so it acted as his internal over flow. There for loosing less water volume.

[greenstarfish03]

My old tank was in the wall and I tried the tank backing first and hated it. I went to home depot and got a small can of oil based rustoleum deep blue paint and painted the back of my glass tank and it was perfect. I think it took two coats and I never had a scratching issue at all in 6 years. To me its the only way to go. I got a new tank when I moved into my new house and I rushed to get it into place and I forgot to paint it before I filled it and I regret it b/c its to close to the wall to do now.

[MizTanks]

Since I'm going to be using a HOB refugium it may be better for me to use the blue water backing.

[steve&mari]

I've seen this used when I move tank it'll be put on. Paints chipped some. It was on for couple years n was still perfect till they pealed it right off then with water was used again for school project for our son (got a on ocean bio world) iam prob going to run clear tape on edges for a back up to salt creep. I also did my 3 fw tanks as Mucho said n belive water won't run up to get behind it if tucked into trim ring on the tank.
Steve