Do you guys not like tank backgrounds???

[Magnum Man]

So, from this, to this… I’m going to move around the hard scape a little to blend it in with the new background

 

[Fishmanic]

When I had a tall 35 gallon hex tank , I put a black background on 3 sides.

 

[Anubias Banana]

So I’m going to use this months Tank of the Month contest, for example… so while we only got 4 tanks, 50% of them have no backgrounds… one is flat black, which is technically a background…

My personal goal, is to make it look natural, but even a “Star Wars” theme, is a background… I don’t personally like to see the cords and air lines, or the wall behind the tank ( exceptions being artistically painted with a tank theme ) where the cords & air lines are run down the corners to minimize the look of them...

I assume, that since half the tanks have no background, there must be a big percentage of forum members, that don’t like them for some reason???

My personal entry, has an old double sided background, and thus IMO is too dark… I have a lighter single sided background for that tank arriving tomorrow… backgrounds are relatively in expensive…

So is there a reason why you don’t like backgrounds???

I don't dislike them in theory but I personally I don't like any enough to justify the getting and applying it to one of my tanks myself.
I also tend to only like to see a plain black or other solid dark colour background if someone else's tank has one, it's neat, clean, hides an unsightly wall, doesn't pretend to be something it isn't but also doesn't look too artificial. But that is totally my subjective opinion.

 

[Magnum Man]

The backgrounds I use are just like posters, layed against the back of the tanks, held in place by the hang on back filters, they slip on and off easily, the new one was $15.00, and took all of 30 seconds to install

 

[Magnum Man]

And after a little rearranging… I think it has a good 3D effect now

 

[Magnum Man]

Now, this background is more translucent, than my previous one, so my back lighting of the background shows up more… this is the last hour of the 24-7 lights ( blue ) with the background, with backlighting

 

[Magnum Man]

The background lighting stays on an hour after the 24-7 lights go out completely, and comes on an hour before the 24-7 lights come back on… this is too dark for my phone to take a good picture, so the camera goes into long exposure mode to gather more light... the background is literally half this bright, in person, sorry about the blurry fish in this one

 

[Ceez]

Not really a fan of anything outside of black or blue. I think black with white sand pops the best but I think blue accentuates fish color better with good lighting and plants. For breeders I use black vinyl on the back and sides. Vinyl is better for water vs paper and is also easy to take off vs paint.

Most of the available backgrounds are cheesy looking and at the end of the day unnatural. That's usually the first thing I notice on someone's tank is a cheesy background and than I lose interest. There are a few that look great but for the most part not a fan.

Some of the background inserts I've seen are absolutely amazing though. There are a few discus/cichlid tanks with these backgrounds that are jaw dropping.

These pics don't do these justice but there are a couple videos of that discus tank and it's absolutely beautiful. I believe this guy put some altums in there with his discus now.

 

[Oldspartan]

We have not gotten to doing much about backgrounds yet. Linda has basically used the coloful packaging that comes with the glass boxes, or nothing at all on the tanks. The 30 gallon long will be the first tank with a background we thing about. I am leaning toward using a 36 by 12-inch slab of Luan plywood as a base and applying an aged brick veneer to it to give it the appearance of a canal wall.

A rainy-day project this week because beginning tomorrow the monsoons are scheduled to return.

 

[Ram419]

I tried to put a background on my 55 gallon tank after the fact but not enough space. I need something like a cloth or vinyl and I can attach using velcro. I guess the sticky ones would work too just don't take the sticker off and just hang it there. I have vinyl ones on two of smaller tanks I have but can't find one for a larger 55 gallon. I also need to take the time to change out the white air line with black one and have it run down the back corner.

Now you got me searching again for one that will fit. Has been a while since I've looked.

 

[Magnum Man]

Are you looking for a black background???

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

 

[Magnum Man]

I use these dots to stick vinyl background material to sides and such

Amazon.com

 

[Fishfunn]

So I’m going to use this months Tank of the Month contest, for example… so while we only got 4 tanks, 50% of them have no backgrounds… one is flat black, which is technically a background…

My personal goal, is to make it look natural, but even a “Star Wars” theme, is a background… I don’t personally like to see the cords and air lines, or the wall behind the tank ( exceptions being artistically painted with a tank theme ) where the cords & air lines are run down the corners to minimize the look of them...

I assume, that since half the tanks have no background, there must be a big percentage of forum members, that don’t like them for some reason???

My personal entry, has an old double sided background, and thus IMO is too dark… I have a lighter single sided background for that tank arriving tomorrow… backgrounds are relatively inexpensive…

So is there a reason why you don’t like backgrounds???

The best background is to get acrylic paint in a color of your choosing and paint the outside back of the aquarium. I like either black or teal blue. What is nice about acrylic paint is that you can easily remove it with water and a rag.

 

[Ceez]

I tried to put a background on my 55 gallon tank after the fact but not enough space. I need something like a cloth or vinyl and I can attach using velcro. I guess the sticky ones would work too just don't take the sticker off and just hang it there. I have vinyl ones on two of smaller tanks I have but can't find one for a larger 55 gallon. I also need to take the time to change out the white air line with black one and have it run down the back corner.

Now you got me searching again for one that will fit. Has been a while since I've looked.

Order regular vinyl from Amazon it's cheaper. Anything aquarium specific is always gonna have an "up-charge". I ordered some Matt black vinyl from Amazon. It's a pain to peel off the film and even more of a pain to put it on by yourself but in the end it worth it.

 

[Magnum Man]

@Fishfunn … Not trying to challenge, but why is that “better” than plastic poster type material, either in a picture, or a solid color of your choice???

For me, I work behind my aquariums and thus I remove the background while I’m working… I also back light my backgrounds, so painting, or a solid opaque color, wouldn’t work with how I do it… my way is certainly not the “best”, or would even work for everyone… I only mention it because it’s kind of different..

It would seem better worded to say what works best for me… but to simply say it’s the best, is going to receive some challenges… we can all have fun, and there are more than one way to skin a cat… the thread was started about if you like backgrounds….

Well, break is over, back to planting my peace lilies in my tanks