Background decision?

[morillonj]

All black background or diy 3d background??

[NanDiscus]

I would not choose black and I definately would not diy a 3d.
The first is too dark, the second is more of a headache than pleasure.
A well-chosen solid colour is possibly the best and simpliest choice. 3M foils come in all colours of the rainbow, you can pick your choice according to the environment or even the strain of fish you would like to keep.
A 3D background is undoubtedly spectacular, but if it's not close to perfect, it looks more odd than natural. It's also not something that's easy to keep clean.
If I had African cichlids, I would possibly go of a diy 3D solution, but IME for discus plain glass is simply best.

Nandi

[Discus-n00b]

Depends. In a planted tank? Dark would be my choice. With white sand, shouldn't darken up the fish to much. Especially if you have good light and nice green plants, the color will really pop against a dark background. I just went to Walmart and got a roll of 5% auto window tint and put that on the back of my tank. very easy and a nice effect I like it. Dark enough, but not choking dark or total matte black. The one problem I have with 3D backgrounds is it stops the depth of the tank. Your eyes know there is nothing at all beyond that point in the tank, where I prefer to have that thought of whats beyond that when I look at my tanks. Doesn't mean 3D can't look really good though, just not for me right now.

[inmisawa]

Hi! I had to make the same decision when I was purchasing my 180 recently. I really do like the 3D, particularly the rock background. But I have an overwelming list of (personal) cons:

-- I decided to go with a trapazoid overflow so the back of my tank is not flat
-- It is difficult to integrate the heater and tubing for and OB or canister. You can put it behind the background which although looks great, it wouldn't work in mine because there would have been a direct view of the back of the tank for anyone walking into my house and I just didn't like that. You can put the tubes in front of the 3D, but I think it detracts from that nature look you're going for
-- Any pieces of wood you put in the tank don't really pop the way you would want them to. They're the same coloring as the background and just don't stand out as well
-- How do you clean the background if it gets covered in algea?
-- If you don't like it, it'll be a pain to get out

Keep in mind these are all just my personal thoughts and I acknowledge some will probably not agree with me. I think if you were to not put any wood in and just went planted with some darker tone rocks in front od the 3D, that may be awesome. And there are some tanks that I like with the 3D, but for me I just didn't think it would work based on what I wanted, which was massive pieces of wood and large swords.

I had a black latex painted onto the back of mine. the paint was $7 plus roller and paint brush. 6 straight coats of paint were applied to and it only took about an hour to do (used a hair dryer to accelerate the paint drying). If you weren't into black because it's too dark, you could try the blue background that a lot of saltwater fans like. I had also considered black tint as well, but it seemed like too big a piece for me to manage. Plus, if I scratch the back I can just apply the touch up paint where ever.

[pepetj]

As far as 3D background that doesn't take much space inside the tank I'm experimenting with corksheet. In one of my Fluval Osaka 155, a heavily planted Blue Discus tank, I placed a nice piece of 1/2" thick corksheet covering the whole rear wall to which I attached twenty plus Java Ferns using black sewing thread (used a curved needle intended for leather use).

I got another piece of corksheet I'm figuring out how to attach small terrestrial Fern dry root pieces to allow some plants to grow there as well.

Corksheet needs to be anchored at first but once saturated with water it should stay put. Placing a sheet of glass with silicon on the side facing the aquarium rear wall should make this easier.

Pepetj
Santo Domingo

[hedut]

well first thing you need to know what kinda discus you looking for if you want black and plant tank are you gonna stay away from pigeon base? if not will be such waste for money and eye ;). well this just me;) but I do blue background:)

[3dees]

I thought long and hard about a 3D background.and decided against it. I was scared it would just be an algae magnet and get crap behind it. I don't think you should say not to get black without knowing what kind of fish is going onto the tank. I have wilds so no peppering and my tank would not look as good with any other color besides black.