Vinyl Wrap first try - I'm never painting a tank again

[don_chuwish]

I've painted the backs and bottoms of tanks many times now, both with craft store acrylic paint and hardware store spray paint. Both are too fragile, subject to scrapes & peeling. Both are messy and require taping off before hand.
But vinyl wrap is just awesome. For my first attempt I used a QT tank I currently have empty. I needed to get something on the bottom:



It was much easier than I'd expected.
Trimmed the wrap with backing paper on it down to about 1" oversize for the space.
After cleaning the glass really well I spritzed it with a spray bottle - water and a drop or two of dish soap. Peeled half the wrap and stuck it down, then peeled the other half.
The soapy water allows you to move it around before scraping it all smooth & pushing out the water.

I did have one big lesson learned - the excess silicone around the base frame got in the way of nice tight edges as you can see:



I should have trimmed away all that excess silicone first.



It is very tough stuff, meant for wrapping cars. Brand I got was VIVID on Amazon. Very nice, feels good, feels tough. NO MORE PAINTING.

 

[Jason mack]

I've painted the backs and bottoms of tanks many times now, both with craft store acrylic paint and hardware store spray paint. Both are too fragile, subject to scrapes & peeling. Both are messy and require taping off before hand.
But vinyl wrap is just awesome. For my first attempt I used a QT tank I currently have empty. I needed to get something on the bottom:



It was much easier than I'd expected.
Trimmed the wrap with backing paper on it down to about 1" oversize for the space.
After cleaning the glass really well I spritzed it with a spray bottle - water and a drop or two of dish soap. Peeled half the wrap and stuck it down, then peeled the other half.
The soapy water allows you to move it around before scraping it all smooth & pushing out the water.

I did have one big lesson learned - the excess silicone around the base frame got in the way of nice tight edges as you can see:



I should have trimmed away all that excess silicone first.



It is very tough stuff, meant for wrapping cars. Brand I got was VIVID on Amazon. Very nice, feels good, feels tough. NO MORE PAINTING.

Cool idea !! And I bet you could get some really nice ones with a backdrop on it for the back glass .. I have just a plain blue one on mine .

 

[Prairie Dog]

Nice! I have used dark window tint on the back. Very easy to install, no painting.

Sent from my SM-T580 using REEF2REEF mobile app

 

[mfinn]

Awesome job @don_chuwish
I've painted most of my tanks through the years, but my 233 was built locally and they did the back with vinyl wrap and I love it.
But what I didn't know that you pointed out was it is applied using soapy water.
I figured it was a one shot deal. Either you get it right or it's wrinkled and ugly.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Looks good... I painted my tank but wish I would have gone vinyl now.

 

[don_chuwish]

I bought enough to also do the back of my 55g QT tank, which is currently in use. I may try to just do it in place, it was that easy.
The 'good' side of the vinyl is of course face out - so I can't say if any patterned product (like carbon a fiber look) would show through the back glass or not. Might just look cool on the back.

 

[don_chuwish]

I take it back. At least for now - paint looks better. The vinyl looks great from the outside and is certainly tougher than paint. But when I got water in the tank and turned on a light it looked terrible through the glass. The adhesive on the back has a pattern that shows through. You can see what I mean in this video:


I'll probably do more research to see if there is a product that does a better job.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

How bout using a very dark tint?

 

[mtraylor]

I have always painted my aquariums with black paint. Very easy to do and I have never taped off a tank to paint it. I just use a piece of cardboard to control over spray. After painting the aquarium, the back of my aquariums have never been accessible so there was never a need to worry about scratches etc. Durability is nothing I even think about when painting the back of an aquarium. It will be interesting to see how a wrap holds up to the salt creep etc. Keep us informed.

 

[AKReef]

I wouldn’t be surprised if those bubbles/texture smooth out over time. I suspect that the adhesive needs time to cure. Maybe wait a week or two and see.