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What is the Best color for a background

31K views 18 replies 18 participants last post by  dprais1 
#1 ·
I was wondering what would be a good background color for a planted tank. I am starting a new tank and want to paint the outside a color....

Ronnie :icon_ques
 
#5 ·
I've got two tanks in black, one in blue, and one with a moss wall on the back so technically green.

The black backgrounds with black substrate look fabulous in my heavily planted tanks with moderate-high light. The greens really pop and my light colored fish look great.

My low-tech low light tank has the blue background and natural sand substrate. It's a bright, happy tank in my office. It doesn't show the plants off as well but my dwarf cories and crystal black shrimp look great. The blue beta kind of disappears. I used to have black substrate and background but the dank looked like a cave. Not enough light or plants to make it work and my cories were hard to see.

So I guess it depends on what your focus is.
 
#8 ·
Black is popular because it makes the fish and the plants "more vibrant looking". I've read many posts that say that a black background, however nice, is unnatural.

The bottom line is that you should go with what you think is best for your liking while trying to keep it "relatively" natural looking. But I strongly advise against painting the back wall of the tank. At some point you may want to change that background and then what? Removing the paint is going to be a pain. What if your tank gets scratched on the front wall and you want to simply turn it around so you can hide that scratch with plants in the background?

There are many reasons not to paint the back wall of a tank. Think about re-use and evolving tastes. I wouldn't do it if I were you.

Just my two cents.
 
#9 ·
I'm a fan of black backgrounds. All of my tanks have them. But I didn't paint them. I used black contruction paper and just taped them on. For larger tanks you'll have to hide the areas where you stitched peices together, but that isn't hard with tall plants or driftwood.

That being said I do have some darker-colored fish that don't stand out as well. I also have a tank with white substrate and a white fish... doesn't look that good. So I'd recommend black but only if you're going to have fish that will stand out against that color.
 
#11 ·
#12 ·
I put some dabs/spongey blobs of red, yellow, and blue paint on the back wall of my tank. Not too much, and it's thin and not just solid areas. After it dried, I painted black over it. From the inside it looks like a black background, but with a lot of texture and irregularity which I really like!
 
#13 ·
For a solid painted background, my favorite so far has been a really really deep semi-gloss pine green--gives as good a contrast as black, without being quite as dead/flat looking.

My next tank, though, is likely going to be either a deep charcoal window tinting film or white frosted. I like the sense of depth and the lighting options they offer over a plain solid background.
 
#16 ·
Test as many colors as you have access to.
Hang paper, garbage bags, towels.... anything...
Just to test what colors you like.

One of my favorites was a fabric with a print on it. Actually, 2 patterns. Both were black, one has deep green and medium green fern fronds. The other is deep green and medium green marbled pattern.
Just looking at these patterns, they are not very garish, and by the time they are seen through the water with plants etc in front they are really nice.
Just enough color so it looks like a lake or river that keeps on going, but a dark enough background that the fish color up really well.

So, to paint something like that you might have to go to a faux finish sort of concept where you use 3 colors. In my case, 2 shades of green and black.

I have seen some really nice effects with blue backgrounds, too.

Plain black works fine, but can give it that 'cave' effect if the light is not good and bright.
 
#19 · (Edited)
I use posterboard and change the bockgrounds pretty often. My fav so far is a dark blue.

painting the back of your tank w latex paint is fast, cheap easy and a snap to take off. no PITA involved. Well a PITA if you have a big tank and can't move it to access the back.

--personally if the tank is scaped well and planted well I really don't notice the background very much. I always notice equip that is visible
 
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