Backgrounds

[Ralph]

Any good ideas for a behind the tank background?

I've got two tanks with nothing in back, they are by windows, they look OK.

I've got one with a wood grained panel, which I thought would be great but the reality is not that good.

My latest is a panel that I spray painted, it is white at the botttom (matching my substrate) turning into a dark brown near the top. It doesn't distract from the tank but it doesn't add much either.

I'd like something that suggested a underwater stream bank. I saw a picture once where somebody used something like cork-covered wall paneling, it looked good.

Any suggestions?

[ChloroPhil]

I used cork on this tank and liked it a lot. Rather than glue a whole sheet of cork to the back and then try to glue cork to cork, I'd recommend painting the back or your tank black and glueing the cork directly to the glass. Some of the best pieces of cork I've seen have been in the reptile sections at the chain pet stores. Look there first. :)

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/?&op=showcase&category=1&vol=-1&id=49

[Ralph]

Congratulations Phil, that's great, how come you didn't tell everybody?

That's exactly what I was thinking. That set up looks like there is no back to it. It seems like there are three different depths to it.
I don't get how you did it though, could you explain it again but talk real slow this time?

[Wahter]

Thomas Barr had an article about this in TFH I think - he glued cork along the back of a tank and then added java fern, bolbitis, java moss, anubias, etc...


Another thing you can do is create a moss wall; Kwek Leong Loh has his here on his site:
http://www.killies.com/Mosswall.htm

He's got some more info here:
http://www.killies.com/Misc.htm

Hope this helps!

Walter

[thebaglady]

Yes, congrats Phil. Beautiful. Took me a while to find it before I saw "Biotope" duh (I'm not blonde!) It was all a nice distraction.

I don't get it either though...is the corkboard stump something you created? Was that attached to the cork backing? I have never thought about putting cork right into a tank. Did a lot of tannins leach out? I've seen cork at Home Depot, Menards which is very thin, maybe 1/8" That isn't what you used though. It looks more chunky.

The soft green algae is beautiful. I have some of that on my rocks in a tank that holds some Barbus filamentosus. I'll never clean them off. I have no idea what type of algae it is but they're pretty, looks like they're covered in green velvet.

The Crypt. walkeri was very nice too. I had a bunch of C. wendtii brown that just collapsed on me recently. I took out a bunch of floating azolla and riccia and the increase in light just melted them. Maybe they will come back. The roots are still there! Crypts are weird like that.

As for me, I like black backgrounds. Makes the fish and plants the stars!

Enough babble.... Jen K.

[ChloroPhil]

Ralph,

I didn't tell anyone because this year it didn't seem like anything special. I was one of three entrants, so I had to win either 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place. Besides, I figured someone around here must have seen it already, no need to go around bragging and acting all stuck up. :)

Ok here goes reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllll slooooooooooooowwwwwww

1. Find your textured cork pieces. I got mine in the reptile section of a local pet store. Most of the time you'll find cork tubes that people use to give their snakes and lizards shelter. If you're lucky you'll be able to find a more natural looking piece of bark like the "stump" I found.

2. Get your corkboard (if you want 100% cork background). You can use regular corkboard or order a cork bark board like I did. The board I got was bits of corkbark glued to a regular corkboard. Aquabotanic has the corkbark board for sale. You might also try www.blackjungle.com

3a. If you choose to go 100% cork silicone the corkboard to the back of your tank, on the *inside*.

-Note- By putting the corkboard on the back you can't put heaters or HOT power filters on the back. I wouldn't recommend using the corkboard for that reason on smaller tanks.

3b. If you chose to forgo the corkboard paint the back or your tank black. Not brown, not green, not pink, but black. The cork will provide a lighter color and will pull the eye toward it. The black behind it will give the illusion of greater depth. Any other color will draw the eye forward making the tank seem shallower.

-Note- Use Flat Black Rust-o-leum. It's the most waterproof and scratch resistant paint I've found. A+ stuff.

Once the paint has dried place and glue your piece(s) of cork. Remember you're going to have substrate, to place the cork higher in the tank rather than lower. You can always use more gravel, rock, wood, or plants to obscure any visible lower ends.

Tip 1: It may seem like a good idea at first to put your filter intake or heater inside the cork. Such is not the case unless you've got it in a corner and can have a few inches on the in-tank side for flow. It's also important to make sure you have some sort of flow behind the cork to keep the water from getting stagnant and polluting the rest of your tank.

Tip 2: The cork will leach a lot of tannins and other organics into the water causing a possibly devastating algae bloom. Run the tank for a month or two with a lot of cheap high growth plants that you don't mind getting rid of when they get covered in algae. Anacharis from Petsmart and various frogbits are really good for this.

Tip 3: For the first month or so do frequent 50-75% WC once or twice a week to keep the total disolved organics down, reducing algae.


Attached is a picture of Ghanzafar Ghori's 46g tank with cork on three sides. Any lack of clarity in the picture is on my part, it was to large to be attached.

The lovely algae on his cork is the same as in my tank, Cladaphora. This is the most insidious algae ever created. Nothing eats it and it's impossible to remove manually. You WILL get it if you've got cork in your tank. The trick is keeping it on the rocks and wood and not in your substrate or on your plants. You _must_ be ruthless with this stuff. Remove any plant leaves or substrate with this algae on it at first sight. Your plants will grow back and you can always bleach your substrate.

He told me he had to tear the tank down three months later as the algae had overpowered the plants. It seems like there is too much of a good thing

[Ralph]

Great post Phil!
Thanks for your patient explanation. I'm still going to have to read it a couple times though. There are a lot of possibilities there.

Walter, thanks for the link to the moss wall. That would look good even in a bare bottom tank (with some mossy driftwood it front).

That takes care of my next two tanks.

[dm]

Wow, there are some great ideas here.
Here is another angle I found on another board. It is also a good idea.

http://www.angelfish.net/yabbse/index.php?board=13;action=display;threadid=510

[thebaglady]

What are these things Pegasus NZ is refering to:

Now drape the fine curtain mesh over this and apply a two pot fibre glass resin with a stiff paint brush

Is fine curtain mesh fabric? Maybe tule? (like little girls ballerina skirts) and two part fibre glass resin?

I think fiber glass backgrounds were from the 50's or 60's? I think my Mom had one in one of her tanks back then. Haven't seen one out of that material since, but it reminds me of being at the zoo. Aren't a lot of indoor (artificial) rocks made this way?

[ChloroPhil]

Yes, most of the current zoo/aquarium backgrounds are made of fiberglass and/or some sort or resin. Concrete is used a lot in reef setups as well. I prefer the resin coated styrofoam method myself.

[thebaglady]

Is that inert enough so you put it inside the tank or do you leave it outside of the glass somehow attached to the tank's back?

I assume after curing it, you could put it inside, but I could see doing it both ways. Like to have more available room inside, stick the rock-like thing on the outside. ::)

You seem like you really enjoy experimenting Biotypical. That's neat.

[dm]

I was thinking of making a concave effect for on the outside of the tank. I saw someone who had one of these and it added a lot of depth to the tank.

[thebaglady]

i always liked making shadow boxes when I was little. :)

[thebaglady]

I have also been thinking about how the background relates to retaining warmth in a tank.

Styrofoam, cork, fiberglass resins and other materials must hold in the heat better than glass, don't you think?

[ChloroPhil]

Actually they go in the tank. It's really easy to custom make a background for a tank this way.

The attached picture is one of Nanne De Vos' biotope aquaria. As far as I'm concerned this man is the greatest aquascaper alive today. His webiste is www.biotopia.nl It's a Dutch site but the pictures are worth the visit.

One day soon I'm going to have a tank like that.....*sigh* :)

[thebaglady]

Biotypical--from what I've seen of your tanks, you're already there!!!!!

We are always the most critical judge of our own work. The rest of us are standing around giving collective OOOHHS & AAAHHHS! :) :D :o