Changing blue acrylic to black?

[bzzh8c]

Hi,

I'm looking into stepping up to a large (140 gallon) tank and got excited when I saw a used acrylic tank for $700 with a great wood stand. My plan was to get into cichlids since I want more color, but don't want deal with salt.

Problem is after I joined this forum and looked around, I read more and more how a bright blue background swamps out the colors if cichlids. Is there any way to paint the background safely, or is the only option to build up the rear wall with rock (can't imagine how much rock/weight that would take)?

Todd

 

[SonicsDC25]

Just apply the paint from the outside of the tank, there should never be paint inside the tank anyways. As for bright blue disturbing the color of a cichlid, I've never heard of that. For the most part it goes down to preference.

 

[bzzh8c]

Black/blue backgrounds

In this acrylic tank the actual piece of plastic that forms the back of the tank is blue itself, so paint would have to go on the inside to cover it - doesn't seem possible.

Maybe a black piece of sheet plastic?

Or maybe lots of rock against the back. Wouldn't that make it harder to clean?

 

[SonicsDC25]

If you don't like the current background color, try scraping it off lightly. You'll have to buffer it afterwards; however you at least can change the color to your liking.

And yeah having a lot of rocks against the back will increase your maintenance since powerheads and wavemakers won't be able to help push it towards your filters.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Blue acrylic is blue all the way through - you don't scrap it off.

If you don't like the blue, you could get a sheet of the black, cut it to size and "weld" it onto the back wall of the aquarium. However, I do have to agree that I don't see that a blue background is going to be an issue with the colors of the cichlids.

 

[SonicsDC25]

Ah yeah I didn't read that close enough, yeah your best bet will be attaching a black piece of acrylic to your tank. The only acrylic tank I had was a 40G that had the outside painted green, no idea what they were thinking with that color -_- but at least it was removable hehe