DIY Painting Back of Aquarium

I thought I would take the time to inform people who are thinking about painting the back of their tank, on how I did it. My tank is a 20 gallon long so the back glass measures roughly 30"X12". First things first I made a run up to Wal-Mart and bought 2 cans of Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Gloss black spray paint for $2.97 a piece. Blue is another popular choice just get a color that suits your preference. I already had tape but if you don't a small roll of blue painters tape would be your best bet.Those would run you around $3 dollars. Last but not least newspaper.

Step 1. CLEAN THAT GLASS! Make sure nothing is on it before you paint. I used plain water with a paper towel and dried it with a dry paper towel it works just fine. Also I set mine on two 5 gallon buckets with pillows on the top to help prevent any scratches on the front panel.

Step 2. I like to tape the edges of the tank with the tape first before taping up newspaper. This is so i can get the edge nice and straight. after I taped the top and bottom trim I moved to the side glass. Here you should tape on the side of the glass right where the edge of the back is to ensure you don't get any on your side panel.

Step 3. Tape the news paper on the bottom, left side, right side, and inside your front glass panel to ensure no excess spray gets inside. I chose not to cover the opening of the glass for the simple reason, to check and see if light can penetrate the paint. You could go a step further and tape off the inside side panels as well but I didn't due to lack of newspaper. If you chose not to just be careful to not allow any over spray to get in the tank opening, you almost have to try to get any in their so if you take your time and have the can 10 inches or so above the glass you should be just fine.

Step 4. Paint! I ended up using just one of the spray cans adding about 4-5 coats. I could see where the trim and glass met on the top and bottom, light was getting through so I was very generous in applying paint to their. It did end up looking a bit rough but no one will see it so I'm not too worried about that. I let the paint dry in the sun for about 10-15 min between each coat, and after my final coat I left it out there for a few hours under the hot Florida sun to bake all the way.

Here's a few pictures during the painting.
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And after drying



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Nice write up!

 

I'm going to paint my next build. I'd +1 you but I'm on my phone... Good job.

 

Same paint I used on my 225.

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How much of a difference would it be using a flat color instead of gloss?

 

Not too sure, I could immagine it being a small difference but I would assume the glass would add some sort of gloss to it anyway.

 

Gloss has some sort of reflection so its only good if your back wall is covered. But flat is better.

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it shouldnt matter because your glass is gonna shine no matter what kinda gloss or flat you use .. all my tanks get the what black spray paint is left over special ive used both and cant tell .

sweet write up it really is easy

 

nice work..

 

I painted mine dark blue with krylon fusion. I was very surprised at how many coats it took to get it to where light wouldn't shine through anymore. Took the whole can.