White background

[Pntbll687]

Anyone ever paint the background or bottom of tank white?

I saw in a corallab video on youtube they talk about the light getting reflected back up from the bottom. I thought it was interesting and something I might consider for my new low boy frag tank.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Would be interesting to see. I know black is popular just from a contrast point of view. Black makes the coral stand out more. I wonder if white would take away from that too much.

 

[Pntbll687]

Would be interesting to see. I know black is popular just from a contrast point of view. Black makes the coral stand out more. I wonder if white would take away from that too much.

I'm not too concerned with display of the tank. It's going to be a frag and grow out tank. I'm thinking black on the back panel, and white on the bottom.

 

[andrewkw]

I painted the bottom of my frag tank white. I love it. The "back" is black but it's setup as a peninsula so the back side is really small and you don't really notice it. This is a lowboy as well. Lights are off now but here is a quick pic.

For a display I don't think it's as worth it. My displays are bare bottom with nothing but glass since I'm not about to remove rock structures to scrap bottom. Eggcrate though I am happy to pick up every couple of months and scrape the bottom. It's great for viewing from the top down, also ensuring you have proper white balance on the camera as well.

It makes it much easier to see detritus, scrape coraline before it gets too thick and see all kinds of neat tiny creatures against the white background like mysid shrimp, copepods ect.

Here is a top down pic with some at least semi colourful corals :

 

[Pntbll687]

I painted the bottom of my frag tank white. I love it. The "back" is black but it's setup as a peninsula so the back side is really small and you don't really notice it. This is a lowboy as well. Lights are off now but here is a quick pic.

For a display I don't think it's as worth it. My displays are bare bottom with nothing but glass since I'm not about to remove rock structures to scrap bottom. Eggcrate though I am happy to pick up every couple of months and scrape the bottom. It's great for viewing from the top down, also ensuring you have proper white balance on the camera as well.

It makes it much easier to see detritus, scrape coraline before it gets too thick and see all kinds of neat tiny creatures against the white background like mysid shrimp, copepods ect.

Here is a top down pic with some at least semi colourful corals :

Nice!!

That looks awesome. I really like the look. I think I'll go for it now.

 

[Waterislife]

White is reflective, it will make things brighter.

 

[Terri Caton]

That's strange. I was literally researching this a couple of days ago. I got a Randall's Assessor who does hang out in the open but because the fish is so dark and the back of the tank is black it's hard to see it.

A comment I read was that when the person goes scuba diving they aren't looking at the scenery with a black background.

I'm sort of thinking about my next tank (Duh). When I return to FL I want to build custom cabinetry and a space for a tank on one wall. I have this really beautiful paint color on the walls that is sort of a blue/green sea glass look. I'm thinking of making the tank with only a glass back and having that paint on the wall behind it. I think that would look awesome.