Custom Colors for Your Chemical Storage Tank

There’s more to chemical storage tank colors than you might expect.

When you purchase a Poly Processing tank from the catalog, you can select an unpainted translucent tank or a black tank. But many of our customers want to know if they can order a custom color for aesthetic reasons or branding purposes. If you need a custom color for your tank, you have a couple of options—some are better than others.

Poly Processing tanks are designed to meet all of your chemical storage needs—including tank custom colors. Here’s what you need to know about chemical tank colors.

Benefits of Black

UV light and heat can degrade your tank as well as the chemical, but black resin reflects the sun and won’t break down easily under UV exposure. In fact, black resin is the best UV inhibitor available. In Poly Processing tanks, UV inhibitors are built into all of our polyethylene, but the black resin extends the life of the tank outdoors.

Some customers are concerned about how much a black tank will heat up under a full day of direct sun exposure. While all black materials heat up under the sun more than light-colored materials do, polyethylene is a poor conductor of heat. In large tanks, it takes a lot of energy to raise the temperature of the chemical simply because of UV exposure. In most cases, the tank wall is thick enough that the sun will begin to set before the heat reaches  the chemical in the tank.

If you’re still concerned about heat, you have a couple options. You can either paint a light color on top of the black resin, or spray-foam the tank and paint the foam. We can spray-foam your tank at our facility.

Handpicked related content: Changing the Color of a Polyethylene Tank—What to Consider

Custom Tank Colors

If you need a custom color, you have a couple of options to choose from. For bulk orders, we can manufacture your tanks with colored polyethylene, according to your custom specifications. But if you only need one or two tanks, we recommend painting your tank once the tank has been delivered.

Paint Your Own Tank

We recommend lightly bead-blasting the tank surface before painting, to ensure the paint adheres. You can also set the tank in the sun for a few months and allow the outer surface to oxidize naturally, then apply the paint.

If you choose to paint your chemical storage tank, be sure to follow proper procedures and to use a paint that won’t crack or flake with tank expansion. We’ve created a guide for painting polyethylene storage tanks to help you get the most out of your painted tank.

Need Custom Colors?

For questions about coloring polyethylene tanks or to learn more about painting your tank, contact a chemical storage tank expert.