Lets discuss backdrops

[tkeracer619]

Mine was done like wallpaper. Pasted fully and smoothed with a wallpaper knife.

Found an example of what I was talking about... not the exact one I remember but close enough... It's called a shadowbox background.

Basically the back board is airbrushed to look like blurry rock/coral structures. Foreground is rock models made out of cork on a transparent blue acrylic. Then the T5 lights... blue plus on back and white on front of back pane causes an illusion of infinite depth. From what I gather pics do no justice.


Another example

Check out this one...

 

[homer1475]

Found an example of what I was talking about... not the exact one I remember but close enough... It's called a shadowbox background.

Basically the back board is airbrushed to look like blurry rock/coral structures. Foreground is rock models made out of cork on a transparent blue acrylic. Then the T5 lights... blue plus on back and white on front of back pane causes an illusion of infinite depth. From what I gather pics do no justice.


Another example

Check out this one...

This to me looks alright, but it looks as though there is another aquarium behind the one your looking into. Like someone stacked 2 tanks back to back. It's cool, just not for me.


All my aquariums have a black background, included my FW tank.

 

[jrill]

Black paint. Everything else looks cheap

 

[Wonton Soup]

Don't paint your tank. Just go get a piece of black vinyl from a vinyl car wrap place, clean the glass really well and patiently put it over the glass. Looks better than paint, you can get any tone of black (or any color) that you want, is relatively cheap, and best of all isn't permanent.

A year from now, you don't like black and want to try blue? No problem. Peel it off (tougher than you might think) and lay some blue on. Selling your tank and the next guy prefers clear glass? No problem.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

It's a tough question, for sure. I love the idea of depicting the ocean behind, but I hate the idea of cleaning the back glass. For me, the lazy option always wins.

I ended up coving my back wall with a fake wall, made with pond foam. There are lots of great threads on a variety of fake wall styles, so you may want to look at those. It's a more complicated project but after considering all the options, I chose this as the most realistic option that didn't require cleaning.

I like black paint too, but I have seen them combined with over-blue lighting that looks like a dark, haunted disco. This doesn't look anything like the sun-drenched waters we are attempting to depict.

 

[slief]

Found an example of what I was talking about... not the exact one I remember but close enough... It's called a shadowbox background.

Basically the back board is airbrushed to look like blurry rock/coral structures. Foreground is rock models made out of cork on a transparent blue acrylic. Then the T5 lights... blue plus on back and white on front of back pane causes an illusion of infinite depth. From what I gather pics do no justice.


Another example

Check out this one...

You beat me to it. I was going to suggest a shadow box as well. They are amazing when done right.

Here is a great thread on building shadow boxes.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1868825

 

[Misled]

I am putting a lightbox on mine. We'll see!!

 

[ibryson]

Don't paint your tank. Just go get a piece of black vinyl from a vinyl car wrap place, clean the glass really well and patiently put it over the glass. Looks better than paint, you can get any tone of black (or any color) that you want, is relatively cheap, and best of all isn't permanent.

A year from now, you don't like black and want to try blue? No problem. Peel it off (tougher than you might think) and lay some blue on. Selling your tank and the next guy prefers clear glass? No problem.

I like the idea of this. I change my mind a lot and surely this would be easier than taking a razor blade to a 6ft tank.

 

[tkeracer619]

I like the idea of this. I change my mind a lot and surely this would be easier than taking a razor blade to a 6ft tank.

It's not, especially once UV light degrades the film.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Dark window tint is another option

 

[Wonton Soup]

It's not, especially once UV light degrades the film.

This is a laughable argument. The vinyl you get from a car wrap shop is UV resistant. Seeing as how direct Sun light produces a billion times more UV radiation than any little fish tank lights ever could and hundreds of thousands of people wrap their cars with the very same vinyl for years and years without so much as a hint of fading or "degrading". It's a safe bet that you'll never experience the condition that you've just made up.

I've had the same piece of black vinyl on the back of my tank for over a decade and I can say with 100% certainty that it will never degrade, fade, peel, or come off the tank unless you want it to. Just clean the glass really well before you put it on. Start in the center and work outward to both edges with a plastic blade to push out air bubbles that may try to form.

Mine gets a lot of salt splashed and dried on it and it just wipes off.

Don't paint! Use vinyl.

 

[tkeracer619]

This is a laughable argument. The vinyl you get from a car wrap shop is UV resistant. Seeing as how direct Sun light produces a billion times more UV radiation than any little fish tank lights ever could and hundreds of thousands of people wrap their cars with the very same vinyl for years and years without so much as a hint of fading or "degrading". It's a safe bet that you'll never experience the condition that you've just made up.

I've had the same piece of black vinyl on the back of my tank for over a decade and I can say with 100% certainty that it will never degrade, fade, peel, or come off the tank unless you want it to. Just clean the glass really well before you put it on. Start in the center and work outward to both edges with a plastic blade to push out air bubbles that may try to form.

Mine gets a lot of salt splashed and dried on it and it just wipes off.

Don't paint! Use vinyl.

I literally pealed 150 little pieces of vinyl off of a tank less than a year ago. There are several grades of vinyl and having wrapped many cars myself I'll skip it. I doubt many people will spend the money on a high grade automotive vinyl. Painting is so much easier. To each his own but there is no need to make accusations.

 

[Wonton Soup]

What accusation? That vinyl is significantly superior to paint in this scenario? It's not even very expensive. You spend thousands of dollars on the rest of the tank but you're gonna pinch pennies on a $40-$50 sheet of something that's easily removed when you're tired of it vs. a more permanent solution like paint?

So which is it? Expensive or degradable?

It's your tank. Paint it if you want to. I'm here to tell you that having done both, vinyl is genius by comparison.

 

[shred5]

I like black or blue sign vinyl. It stays on but comes off when you want it too. Super easy to install.. If you can not get it from a local sign store the Blue life water colors background is really good and goes on the same way, just a little more expensive.

Paint is good but if you ever want to sell the tank or change it.

 

[shred5]

I literally pealed 150 little pieces of vinyl off of a tank less than a year ago. There are several grades of vinyl and having wrapped many cars myself I'll skip it. I doubt many people will spend the money on a high grade automotive vinyl. Painting is so much easier. To each his own but there is no need to make accusations.

Never had a issue with sign vinyl or Blue life.
They are very thick. Maybe car vinyl is not right for the application.