Does a black background ruin a rimless tank? What about a clear one? I haven't seen a rimless in person so I really can't say. From those of you who have, what do you think?
Is the choice any different because the tank is rimless?
Personally, it depends what you like and what you want to create/achieve.
Some more thoughts for you guys...
I wanted the exterior of my rimless tank to look a nice as the interior. Hence I made decisions based on this concept.
From my experience, a black background does give corals more "POP". But it depends what you want to achieve. If your rock-scape is open like mine, black wouldn't be as effective as a gradient blue background. I was after a more natural look and wanted to create a perception of depth. The blue gradient does certainly help achieve this as does placing corals carefully.
Since my glass is rather thick (19mm or 3/4") I wanted to make it appear as light/clear as possible. Therefore I chose low-iron glass to achieve this and gave consideration to the background and silicone colour.
Looking down at an angle on a rimless tank adds a whole new perspective. Normal or low-iron glass is perfectly acceptable for rimless. Of course most of you know that using 'low-iron' glass not only allows clearer viewing through the glass but it also 'lightens' the appearance of the glass when viewed from above. The glass definitely appears is less green and more clearer. For me, this was important on a rimless tank.
Now, if black silicone is used for the joints, this will darken the appearance of the glass when viewed from the ends or above. Also, black silicone makes it harder to see any air bubbles that may arise on a rimless tank. Something that is very important to monitor on a rimless tank. For these two reasons I went with clear silicone.
A black background will also make the side glass panels appear darker when viewed from above and I wasn't after that. A gradient background has less of a darkening effect and gives a new dimension to what you are looking at.
A clear background would look great but this depends whether you have cables/plumbing parts in view. Camouflaging pipes/cables as Chingchai does or placing rock work/corals can easily overcome this. Having the overflow at one end and a closed loop would work well.
One more important factor... Having a gradient blue background (or clear) will require cleaning more regularly as the algae shows up more easily/clearly than on a black background. I clean mine once a week during the water change procedure.
Hope that helps...
Andrew
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