Background question - paint or not??

I painted mine black.. I just recently glued down some GSP's to see if they would spread...

 

I painted mine and love it, the only way to go IMO. Check out my tank thread in my signature for more info.

 

I used this stuff:
Blue Life Water Colors Aquarium Background - 72x30 Black
It's basically like window tint. You soap up the back of the tank, peel off the backing, and apply it to the tank. It works great and doesn't fall off. It stopped the stray light from entering my tank and stopped my algae bloom. I'm paranoid about paint near my tank, or I would have done that.

 

Look at the last page of my tank thread to see side by side black vs. blue backgrounds. Painted with simple acrylic artist paint.
I plan on keeping mine clean of coraline... going for a natural snorkeling look. The light shimmer on the blue makes a huge difference vs. black. It seems much more like daytime ocean.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/fish-tank/blue-water-52764-3.html

 

I have painted every tank I ever setup. I like black backgrounds.

Spraypaint is simple. I don't even use newspapers anymore. Just be careful of overspray.

It doesn't matter if you pick gloss or flat spray. From the inside through the glass it will always appear glossy.

 

It probably will, as long as the glue holds long enough. Thats a risky move given the growth characteristics of GSP.

 

mine is painted but i wish it was not because I'm building new rooms on my house and wanted to make a double room view. so I would use the black role stuff they sell at the store this way you can change your mind later.

 

I painted mine with latex, I love it. What was also cool about it was that I could pick any color I wanted, I have a really dark blue, almost black and it's very neat. The other tank we had a black filmy background and it was worthless so I tore it down. I would like to paint it black (while it's set up lol) and it's going to be a chore!

 

Hi mom! We went with some Cobalt Blue latex. It wasn't exactly fun to paint on because the painters tape pulled off the first coat in one nice sheet...which was kind of cool but also a pain in the rear. We ended up with 3 coats and it looks nice now.

 

Looks great ...I'm a fan of the blue.