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A reef aquarium background adds a nice finishing touch to your reef. It serves more that one purpose.

First, it can hide from view any equipment and/or wires that may be behind your tank.

Secondly, a nice background can enhance the beauty of your reef.

You have a few choices for your reef aquarium background.

Most if not all LFS (local fish stores) carry a number of different backdrops you can just tape to the outside back of your aquarium.

Some of them are well suited for a reef environment.

By far the most popular method for a background is to simply paint the back of the tank. I'm talking about the outside of the tank. Painting the inside is not a good idea.



Painting with a brush or a roller does not work very well.

Use spray enamel/lacquer for the best results. It seems that Krylon is the most popular type of spray paint for glass aquariums today.

It does take some surface preparation and you need to mask the frame, but the results are about as good as you are going to get painting glass.

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How to paint your tank

Place the aquarium face down with the back facing up. Make sure to keep the tank as level as possible. The paint will spread more evenly if the surface is level. I recommend you only use white vinegar with paper towels or a clean cloth to give the glass a good cleaning. Don't leave any fingerprints because the oils in your hand will prevent the paint from sticking to the glass.

Clean the glass twice like this to make certain it is clean, then wipe it down with a clean damp cloth. Use some paper towels to dry the surface. It should be ready now.



Now it's time to mask the frame and the sides of the tank. Regular masking tape and newspaper work great for this. Take your time and do a nice job of covering everything but the back glass of the tank. You should be in a well ventilated area. There will be a lot of overspray so make sure you cover the floor, concrete, rug, (yes, I once got a bit of black overspray on an off white rug), with something like newspaper.

Apply several coats but be sure to follow the manufactures instructions for drying time in between each coat of paint. It may take 3 or more coats of paint to fully cover the glass so you cannot see through it.

Once you have the final coat of paint applied and before the paint has cured, it's a good time to remove the masking tape and clean up any drips or overspray that might have occurred. A single edged razor blade is all you need. You should now have an excellent looking reef aquarium background.



One final thought here. Choose your color carefully. I see a lot of reef tanks with a black background. Personally, I prefer a dark or medium blue. It seems to bring out the colors of the reef, corals, and fish better than black does. If you have a chance, do go and see some reef aquariums with different backdrops and choose whatever looks best to you.

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