Blue vs Black backing - The final product

Hey guys,

I want to paint the back of my glass. At the moment I have just some dark blue backing that gets moisture behind it and just doesnt look that great.

I am tossing up between a dark blue or black paint for when I paint it.

I have seen a few cool black ones, and that might be what I am leaning towards seeing as my whole stand is black and my light is black. The pros I see is that it will match my stand and light and that it will give the tank a sharp look. It will also make all colours of corals and fish stand out nice behind it. The cons I suppose would be it will possibly absorb to much light? Taking away from the light that the corals need? Especially as I want to move into SPS.

The pros I see of blue is that it will absorb less light and looks abit more natural. But the down side is that I cant really get many blue corals as their colour wont look as good behind blue.

What does everyone think? If you have either a black or blue background on your tank, could you put up a full tank shot? So I can get some comparisons going?

Thank you very much.

 

I personally prefer the black or a really dark blue. I think it looks more sophisticated and the colors of the coral pop.

 

Mmm Im definately thinking the same. Probably leaning towards black.

 

I like the black more as well. It has a cleaner look than light blue.

 

It will hide my algae problems well!

 

lol, yeah that is definitely a plus. This is a bit off topic but, how to you like 55gal as a tank size?

 

I think its really good actually. I think it provides me with a great amount of space to work with. I have loads of room for corals etc, it will look amazing when its fully stocked and I do like having a bigger amount of room for fish to swim etc. As I have only come from 2ft freshies.

The only thing I would say is I wish it were big enough for tangs. Thats probably the only disadvantage. But I really love the fish I currently have (Flame Ang, Flasher, Chromis and Oscellaris). If space is an issue, like it is for me, 55g is a pretty good compromise.

 

Yeah, I have a 55gal and I have a few problems with it. My main problem is the tank is very narrow, so none of the equipment fits under the stand. It does give lots of room for coral. A size I think is pretty good is 120gal,(48x24x24 in) It doesn't take much more real estate than a 55 and overcomes some of my issues with a 55. Although 55 is very flexible for it's water volume.

 

I had the same issues, to combat that I got a custom sump made, so it takes up exactly the length and width of my stand. Would have fit everything but I mis calculated how big the filter sock and holder is, so now my protein skimmer has to be external.

Am working on a bench type thing to cover it so it wont be noticeable.

 

I have to do external with everything, because my tank is laminated glass and cannot be drilled. Probably if it wasn't laminated I would like it more......laminated has many shortcomings for tanks.