painting back of tank

is painting the back of your tank purly for looks or is there some type of reason for it.
if so what color and what type of paint should i use.

 

mainly for looks, but it also helps reflect light back into the aquarium and gives a nice contrast to make your fish and corals stand out. Most popular is black, I like blue.

 

is there a certain type of paint to use. i was thinking of doing like a darker blue with metallic flakes in it for added effect.

 

blue reflects the light better in my opinion, but i like black or a coriline algae purple

 

I like the darker blue idea!

 

now do you put the paint on the inside or outside (ik stupid question) just making sure

 

is there a certain paint to use on glass so it wont chip off over time, like rust-oleum or somthing of that nature

 

Definitely paint the outside. One, it won't have any chance of leaching anything into the tank. Two, if it ever does chip or anything, you can just paint over it!

I used regular Rustoleum spray paint.

 

I used to paint all my aquariums with Rust Oleum black paint until I discovered a plastic film sold by Oceanvisions. I have it in two of my aquariums and it sticks and looks amazing! This is their product description.

Oceanvisions is a vinyl, water proof "sticker" background which eliminates water stains, salt/lime buildup, dirt and any other foreign matter from ever appearing on the back glass of your aquarium. The background is waterproof and lasts for years and it is easy to remove when redecorating your tank.

 

I use Krylon fusion to paint the back of my tanks. The plus side of that is its reef safe, so if a little gets in, no biggie, plus if you want to paint anything that goes in the tank, you have it.