I'll try to post a pic of my tank when I get home from work. I just used a latex based paint that I got from Home Depot.
What do you use for background?
- Thread starter HarmonyAZ
- Start date
i just used black poster board cut to the size of the tank. it's cheap, so when its gets a little used...ie, water stains, etc., i just change it. i think it looks good for my plants.
On 2 of my small tanks I bought a cheap vinyl table cloth and cut it up. I used a black one on another and on my 20 gallon that was given to me it already had the plant background so I just kept it. I plant the tank quite heavily so I like th eway it fills in any blank spots.
Originally posted by HarmonyAZ
Do you paint the back of your tank black? Or use the pin-up poster type thing? Or what?
I've been using the poster things but just read at skepticalaquarist.com that that is tacky.
THANKS!
Funny.
I don't see how one sites opinion on backgrounds can affect your opinion on the subject? If you like the backgrounds so be it. That's your taste. Nothing wrong with that.
I personally don't use them. I use to, but I don't anymore. Does that mean my taste use to be tacky and now it isn't?
I don't think that it was Wetman's intentions to force his opinion to change. He probably was just giving his opinion. This is of couse without reading the article. I have however read some of his other stuff and he certainly doesn't come off like that.
Anyway. I now use mirrors placed on the back of my tanks. It gives off a deep look and when maintained can actually make the tank look fuller. You can buy mirrors cheap at places like Walmart and then get them cut by a window or glass cutter for next to nothing. If you get the edges rounded (highly recommended I have the cut scars to prove it) it will cost a little bit more.
Here's an excerpt from the article. It's funny he kinda slams mirrors, too.
"Though nothing gives a better impression of serene deep space than shadowless blackness, there are alternatives to a painted rear glass. I don't mean cheesy laminated photographs of classical ruins on plastic placemats filched from the Greek diner and stuck to the rear glass with mineral oil. (You thought maybe I didn't know!) Just as nothing behind the tank should distract from it, nothing in the backdrop should compete with the complete world you create inside the aquarium. Don't waste time building dry dioramas in shadowboxes to go behind the tank. Concentrate your design energy on what you build inside the tank. For years I used metallic green backing papers with a crystalline or leafy texture. I admit I even did a trick with an angled mirror once. I guess we all do that mirror thing, eventually. In the end, like all New Yorkers, I came around to Takashi Amano black...
Sometimes even the most preposterous plastic background printed on an endless roll has a reverse side that is plain blue, shading from light to dark. That's the only side to use!"
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I wouldn't have asked further about this if I didn't already wonder myself if there was an alternative I'd like better. I just don't have that decorator eye and I do sometimes need to rely more on the opinions of others who do. It's not that I'll ever do things their way despite liking the look of my way better, but that I usually like their way better so am then glad I looked into it!
"Though nothing gives a better impression of serene deep space than shadowless blackness, there are alternatives to a painted rear glass. I don't mean cheesy laminated photographs of classical ruins on plastic placemats filched from the Greek diner and stuck to the rear glass with mineral oil. (You thought maybe I didn't know!) Just as nothing behind the tank should distract from it, nothing in the backdrop should compete with the complete world you create inside the aquarium. Don't waste time building dry dioramas in shadowboxes to go behind the tank. Concentrate your design energy on what you build inside the tank. For years I used metallic green backing papers with a crystalline or leafy texture. I admit I even did a trick with an angled mirror once. I guess we all do that mirror thing, eventually. In the end, like all New Yorkers, I came around to Takashi Amano black...
Sometimes even the most preposterous plastic background printed on an endless roll has a reverse side that is plain blue, shading from light to dark. That's the only side to use!"
---------------------------------------------------------
I wouldn't have asked further about this if I didn't already wonder myself if there was an alternative I'd like better. I just don't have that decorator eye and I do sometimes need to rely more on the opinions of others who do. It's not that I'll ever do things their way despite liking the look of my way better, but that I usually like their way better so am then glad I looked into it!
Backgrounds.
Funny at the store we have all our tanks painted either black or blue.
With some fish it works. But for the most part it becomes a hinderence in the selling aspec. The fish tend to get lost. Granted it isn't even close to being the same as having the home aquarium setting for the fish. I just never found the look to my liking.
EHHH! To each his own.
Funny at the store we have all our tanks painted either black or blue.
With some fish it works. But for the most part it becomes a hinderence in the selling aspec. The fish tend to get lost. Granted it isn't even close to being the same as having the home aquarium setting for the fish. I just never found the look to my liking.
EHHH! To each his own.
