Tank Backgrounds

J

jbhumphreys

Guest
Let's here what everyone uses as their tank background. I know there has to be something better than the standard plastic paper rolls you buy at the lfs. I have a 55gal tank with fish and a few shrimp. It is decorated with dead corals and some purple barnicals and a big shell. This leaves a lot of the back of the tank showing. Tried not having one at all and it looked bad because you can see all the hoses and prefilter box. Right now I use the basic dark blue plastic paper.
Thanks in advance for any good advise.
 
lu

lu

Member
Geez...I don't know. I'm using the dark blue platic coated paper too. I didn't see anything else that I liked better and I didn't know they made anything out of the ordinary.
Consider this though, if you ever do make a reef/fish tank out of what you have now, you surely won't want a paper background that has corals and plant stuff cause what you'll be putting in the tank will look way better than the paper, know what I mean?
From the pics people have posted here, it looks like most of them use the blue background. :)
 
thewolfman777

thewolfman777

Member
i also use the standard plastic background with a nuice seascape scene on it. i havent seen anything better out there so i stuck to what was avail.
 
michaeltx

michaeltx

Moderator
I use black spray paint on all my backgrounds and paint the tank it gives a smooth even look to it but the tank has to be empty to do it and needs a couple of days to dry..
my goldfish tank I used gold and silver glitter spray paint and then gloss black over the top and really looks great but doesnt photograph the sparkles in the background..
Michael
 
thewolfman777

thewolfman777

Member
i have thought of this prior to this post but forgot to mention it earlier. i was going to try to use mirror as the back ground but was unsure how it would look. i think it would look really cool if you didnt get a reflection from the outside front of the tank. has anyone tried this before???
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
Unsure on the mirror idea - may freak out the fish ??
I just use plain ole black or blue backrounds.
 
jester

jester

Member
dark blue paper type. I took a wet sponge and squeezed out saltwater onto it. I let it run down the back between the paper and glass. after a few days, it dried and left a few outlined air pockets. since I have a bubble wand in the tank, it looks really cool, espicially at night. :D
 
bbreaux1

bbreaux1

Member
ive gota blue background just used vegetable oil to stick it on and got all the airbubbles out and double stick tape the two edges it looks pretty good i think. next thing i wanna do though is add a sump to get my heaters and all out of there
 
fishymissy

fishymissy

Member
I use blue wrapping paper on the back of the 90 and nothing on the back of the 20. I like the wrapping paper because it is lighter in color, it was cheap, and it lets some light in from the back that way.
 
nm reef

nm reef

Active Member
On my 55 reef I used .....black cloth(kind of velvet).....I covered the sides and back(using double sided tape)....effect is in my opinion very nice leaves only the front open in the display and provides good contrast with the lighting and lr..........anyway I like the way it looks and its easy to remove when needed........ :cool:
 
jastim

jastim

Member
I also use a black background. Heard paint works well but of course is permanent. What is nice about the black (paint or plastic) is it tends to hide anything you have hanging on the back of the tank like overflows, heaters, etc... Gives good contrast to fish and corals too.
 
S

sinner's girl

Guest
our 55gl and 25 are painting blue. It's cool. Black might be good too. But since the sink is behind the tang we needed something back there...
(i don't get...yesterday I couldn't sign in under this name, today i was already logged in. whatever..)
 
jonthefb

jonthefb

Active Member
I actually dont use a background, but let the algae grown on the back glass only, giving it a green appearance. This way any of my algae eatign fish such as my bicolor blenny, pygmy angel and snails always have somehing to chew on! It looks kinda cool too!
 
daisy

daisy

Member
I use a deep, sea foam green shiny paper that has a random star pattern stamped into it. It's from my LFS. Before that, I used the shiny side of heavy duty aluminum foil. The foil looked good when the tank was freshwater, but less amazing with the salt. I'd go for solid. I just didn't want blue or black because you see it everywhere else. I love the green -- it makes the tank look bigger.
 
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