Backgrounds

[goldenboy]

hi im a complete novice to the world of keeping tropical fish im at the stage of setting up the tank no fish just yet. just as well as even at this early stage im getting conflicting advice about fixing the background. originaly i was advised to purchase a plastic background & fix it to the inside of the tank as this would give you a much sharper image which made sense to me than fixing it to the outside of the tank.
since the purchase of the background some one else has advised against fixing it to the inside as algae will grow on the background and when cleaning the algae off the backround you will also rub of some of the background picture, any comments or sugestions on this topic would be appriciated thanks.

 

[welshy9]

Id stick them on the outside to be honest , as when you go to clean your tank There might be alge etc ,

 

[Bit.Fishy]

There are different types of background..theres the thin sheet of plastic ones,plain or pictures those (which is what you have) go inside the tank

and theres 3D backgrounds like rocks,walls and so on those go on the inside of the tank... mayeb whoever advised you to put it inside thought you had/wanted one of the 3D ones

 

[Joinerlavin]

I used a type of glue, Think it was called SeaView, to stick my background on the back of the tank, looks great and the background is clear.

 

[Fisses]

use water, then put onto the back and squeeze out the bubbles

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hi there goldenboy, welcome to the forum

personally i just put backgrounds on the outside, never had any problems.

I'm gonna take this opportunity to launch in and tell you about a few other things that you need to know before you add fish, I know it's not the question that you asked but that may be because you don't know that you need to know the answer if that makes sense!

Before you add fish there's a process that you need to go through which sets the tank up and makes the filter work. basically the filter is just a bit of hardware what really processes the fish's waste and stops the water getting toxic is bacteria, now the filter doesn't contain these bacteria we need to culture them. If you don't culture them before you add fish then the filter can't process the fish's waste and you have to do it manually by changing the water every single day often for a month or more. The process is called fishless cycling and you'll find all teh details of it in the link in my signature of the same name.

reading this and following it is the single most important thing you can do before you launch in and buy fish

 

[goldenboy]

hi thanks for the advice seems most people here fix there backgrounds to the rear of the tank.
the reason i considered fixing my plastic background to the inside of the tank as i was hoping this would have less distortions from the glass has any one tried this.
seaview looks like an intresting option.
miss wiggle have heard of fishless cycling. will certainly check your link when i get closer to that stage thanks