Backgrounds

[Popplefish]

I'm tired of just looking at my walls through my fish tank, but I don't like most of the planted backgrounds that you can put on the back. I was thinking of either black or blue backgrounds. Any comments or preferences? I have hornwort and goldfish in my 20 gallon, and the substrate is pretty neutral brown, so I was thinking of blue maybe.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Cheers!

 

[Newman]

black always makes the plants and fish pop better than blue or white backgrounds.

another cool background that ive come across was the DIY cement and styrofoam project, but that can only really be done on a brand new set up...

 

[emmanuelchavez]

Maybe some examples could help you choose a color. There are double-sided backgrounds available. I have some that are blue on one side, and black on another.

 

[Monoxide]

I was going to say IMO straight black background is good.

 

[anshuman]

get double-sided (black/blue), I am going to get same and then don't stick that straightaway to back of tank, first choose a side and simply try taping ends making sure the wall gets stuck as tight as possible to tank . Now you can go on for a week or two to make up your mind and turn the back if needed or simply stick it permanently if you like it.

 

[hyunelan2]

I've always liked plain-black in my planted tanks. It makes everything stand out better. It also makes equipment like heaters and intake/exhaust tubes blend in and not stand out.

I would also suggest using the adhesive type of background - as you will never get water drops between the background and the glass, which is super ugly.

I bought a large piece of the stuff from oceanvisions and did my 46g about 4 years ago. I used the leftovers to do some of my smaller tanks. It's still firmly attached and hasn't let go or anything like that. Here's an example from the first place I found selling it from google, may be better or worse sellers, dunno.

Crystal Black Oceanvisions Background | Backgrounds, Self-Adhesive | Backgrounds | Aquarium - ThatPetPlace.com

 

[Newman]

ditto on getting the blue/black double sided.

 

[ValRasbora]

yeah definitely go for double-sided. Much easier than wasting your money buying 2!

 

[tom91970]

I normally go for a black background for the above stated reasons: fish and plants are stand out and heaters, tubes, and cords don't show as much.

I sometimes use black poster board or will use paint.

 

[Doomhed]

I like using black construction paper or wrapping paper, or paint. I have also previously done white backgrounds with darker fish.

 

[sheamurai]

I couldn't decide either, so I went with a dark blue background...

 

[Popplefish]

Ooo.. I like the look of that Sheamurai. The blue really pops. I'm thinking black on the cichlid tank and the blue on the goldfish tank, because the orange would look striking against the blue.

So many good suggestions!!

 

[Newman]

orange looks stricking on black also
you know what makes color pop out even more?
a light bulb that has around 5000K
it makes red/orange colors 2x as bright.

 

[Popplefish]

That's totally true about the orange on black. The lights on the GF tank have two 6700K bulbs on them, all that I used to have was one lone CFL with 3000K. I really like the brighter lights on the goldfish tank. In a month I'm going to get brighter ones for the cichlid tank to whiten it up a little. What I have now is just a single light hood with two ballasted CFL bulbs on there.

 

[Newman]

i find that before when i had a 5000K bulb on my tank, my orange and red goldfish really expressed the red and orange more. kinda like neon. Then i switched to two 6700K bulbs, and although the tank is 10x brighter, the red and orange dont pop as much =/

I also had a 6500K bulb on there and that had similar effect as the 5000K
the red and orange really "glow" more under those lights...