Painting the back of a tank. IYO what is the best color?

[Mandocruz06]

Do I need to remove the fish.

[IHaveNoOpinionOnObama]

I used royal blue spray paint on the back of my 125 from Ace Hardware and it looks great, even with blue colored fish. My favorite though is the white posterboard I let my kids draw their idea of an aquarium on. I got two pieces, cut it to lenght and width and taped it and then let them go at it with their colors. Taped to the back when done. It looks great and draws my kids to the tank even more.

[jhenry]

Do I need to remove the fish.

If you use spray paint yo need to cover up the tank tightly. But if using a roller there is no need I've done it that way before

[fish daddy]

I used 2 cans of spray paint, outside, with a droplight in the tank to pinpoint the thin spots. Painted at night so the droplight idea would work.
Use alcohol to clean the glass first.

I have used the foam pad in the past to do a black freshwater.

[Cichlidfarm]

Black

[sunkenmetal]

What ever color you like best I say. Its your tank do as you wish with it lol.

[Sea-agg09]

Black is the overall standard. It makes everything in the tank pop. There are some fish that do better in non-black tanks, like Discus and Seahorses. With a black background, they are driven to change color, and a crazy looking red seahorse will change black quickly behind a black background. Discus look almost sick when they darken up, but it's that they are blending in with the dominant color. For those fish blue is the general standard. I've seen white done, but that is a terrible idea. Tank inhabitants don't pop, and the first spec of algae will glow like the sun. For the most part, I would go with blue, but I've seen the seafoam green with some success.