I am new at setting up forums and I have recently put the chat box on my forum. The colors for the background alternate back and forth between white and black every time someone's posts. I don't mind the black but when it changes to white I am unable to see the text that people are writing. Yes I know I can change the font color but I would just prefer for the whole chat box to be black. Any help would be much appreciated on how to change this, thanks!

In your CSS locate the section that starts
/* Chatbox-------------------------------------------------*/

change both row color 1 and 2 to #000000
.chatbox_row_1 {
padding: 4px;
background-color: #000000;
}
.chatbox_row_2 {
padding: 4px;
background-color: #000000;
}

i follow those exact steps but the background color does not change?

Go to

Admin panel > Display > Pics & Colors > Colors > Try playing with the colors a bit and see if you get it

that worked ty