How should I do my tank background?

Not necessarily, Some of my tanks have been like this. My last tank, for example though, I was actually good and scraped the coralline off the glass regularly.

As for color, I think blue looks more natural. I've had black too and it did have good contrast, but didn't look natural in any way IMO. I think the best thing is to use a piece of acrylic and adhere it to the glass. This way, you can paint the acryic any color and if you don't like it, it's easy to repaint. If you paint the glass, your sort of stuck with it, or at least it is significanly more difficult to scrape and re-paint. The paper backgounds work too, but water and salt get behind them more easily than acrylic and then they look crudy. The same can happen with acrylic though, but you can at least take a sponge and clean it.

 

I agree with steve..but have painted mine black so my power heads / overflow blends in..I feel the black was a good choice for my tank..either color I don't think you can go wrong Imho..

 

A big problem with a stick on background would be that I have a sump...there would be two holes in the back glass anyway.

I'll look into the acrylic. Maybe I can paint one side black, the other blue?

 

Lowe's has a 0.08" thick acrylic sheet 48" X 24" for $21. I can have them cut off the top 7 inches I won't need and make cuts to fit around the OF boxes. One side black, one side blue. We will see what color Dad and I like better.

Shop OPTIX 48" x 24" Clear Acrylic Sheet at Lowes.com

 

Check tabplastics.com, they have tint, I have seen people use the black window tint, had it go on great, plus if needed to find a handing fish or something its easy to remove. I like your idea however, that should work as well.

 

Thank you. It should be nice.

 

your right, its definitely a bit of lazyness on my part, that aspect
I do the front as soon as a small circle appears
the sides reasonably often
but the back of the tank, neglected most of the time for me

 

Hey that might not be a bad option for ya(after all gotta make pops happy lol....if you go this route post a pic or 2..

 

I will be sure to add it to here, as well as my build thread. Thanks.

 

I painted mine blue because of my clown fish. Blue and orange are complement colors and the blue background makes my clown fish POP. Love the affect it has. Its totally your choice and the sky is the limit. Have fun with it though.