Background on inside of tank.

Okay well lately I have been wondering how to get a background on the inside of the tank, without hurting the fish. I have been looking at a lot of pictures online of tanks, that have backgrounds on the inside of the glass. Which looks so much better, than on the outside to me. I really don't like the reflective look that you get from the glass, even with the background on it. So do the backgrounds you get from petsmart work on both inside and outside? The only problem I can think of with these though if I did is how to get it to stick and also having the exact cut. I've heard that sealing it on the back can give it a really good brightness, but will this still give the mirror look back into the tank? I've read that painting it or spraying it is that it can hurt the paint even with Krylon fusion. So I don't know about that either. Tanks in Petsmart and and petco, I've seen that they have the blue backgrounds that are on the inside and look great. And that's what I want. Maybe somebody on here has worked there and can tell me?

 

I have no idea how to get the background in the inside of the tank but if you take like cooking oil and take a brush and "paint" it on the back of the tank and it shows up really great and I think if you put it in the inside of the tank its shiny too so it would reflect too sorry that's all I can suggest sorry , hope things go well

 

Cooking oil on the outside/inside of the tank?

 

:giggleutside the tank

 

I've never heard of putting it on the inside.....

 

backgrounds

inside backgrounds are made out of styrafoam

 

I'm not wanting a 3d background. I just want a blue background with no reflexion. What about making a matte background of blue then putting a layer of aquarium silicone over top of it?

 

I can't comment on the cooking oil, but with my cichlid tank I had a background on the back of the tank. I also had an automatic feeder in the middle of my tank towards the back of it. My Oscar quickly learned to jump up to hit the feeder and some pellets would evidently fall into the water. Most actually fell on the floor and led to some mice but that's a different story. lol

Anyway, is the course of jumping into the feeder he would splash water out of the tank which eventually got between my glass and background. The areas where there was water inbetween the two surfaces looked MUCH better and more vibrant. I'm not advocating using the oil, but I am saying that the water helped tremendously. This however may lead to algae or something growing between the surfaces too.

 

I'd forget about buying a background & just paint the outside back glass the colour you want it. That will avoid most of the reflections & save you a headache on how to get the backing in the tank.

If you really want to put a backing in the tanks, the only way to do it is to remove the fish & break the entire tank right down, no matter what kind of internal background it is.

Avoiding reflections on the back glass is mostly about having the lighting in the correct place. If you can move the light fixture, try having it in different places on the tank & see how much of a difference you can get that to make.

 

Yeah I have seen the tanks at my lfs with water in between the tank and background. And it is really bright, and better looking. I can try cooking oil. But is there anything else also that won't dry up after time. Also painting the background I've always wanted to try but if I don't like it or want to try something different I can't.

 

What about a blue shower curtain? You could hang it over the inside back wall. Weight it down w/ rocks and gravel, then put filter etc back on. You might get mold, but it could be scrubbed w/ algae cleaner brush.

 

I can't figure out what I want to do. I want to put some kind of thin wood, or plastic in the back. And spray paint it with krylon fusion. But I don't know where I could get an exact cut for the inside of the tank. At the bottom there is a video of petsmart tanks. This is what I want mine to look like. Any ideas on what they do?

 

That looks like blue styofoam to me. You can buy at any home improvement store. PS don't tap on fish tanks, it hurts them.

 

Looks like those tanks are just painted on the outside to me. If you don't want to paint the actual tank you can get a piece of 3mm MDF & cut that to the size of the tank. You can paint it any colour you like & tape it in place with some duct tape. If you con't like the colour you can just pull the MDF out & paint it a different colour. The effect is very close to painting the tank itself.

 

They aren't. I looked at petsmart yesterday, and saw that they have seaclear tanks, with blue plastic for the sides. Okay well I'm determined to get the exact thing I want. So do you think I could buy some plastic or wood, from a hardwood store, and they would cut it to the exact size? Then I would go home and do what you said except with it being on the inside.

 

If you want to try mounting it on the inside of the tank you are going to have to use plastic as any kind of wood is going to soak up water. You will also have to find a paint that is safe for use inside the aquarium, which isn't that easy to find. You will also have to remove all of the fish & decor, empty the tank & then install the background. Depending on how you fix it in place the tank might have to remain empty for several days.

I'd just put it on the outside personally as the difference between inside & outside is so minimal most people wouldn't notice the difference. Your tank though so if you don't mind the big hassle of finding paint etc, then go for it.

Good luck with the project.

 

I got a printed film background when I got my tank, it's mounted on the outside of the tank using a type of oil (forget the name but its sold for the purpose), you paint it on like Maritzruan says, then smooth the film (with oil) onto the glass to expel the air. If you take your time and get rid of all the bubbles, It's incredibly bright and there is no reflection whatsoever from the glass you only see the picture on the film. It's been there over a year now and still up, but can be peeled away easy enough if you wanted to change the background.

I'll try and post a photo after I take one.

Here's how bright it looks (and no reflections between glass and background)


I need to do some plant maintenance and cleaning, then I want to take some more fishy pics

 

That's a beautiful tank. I love the background. I'm going to try to use an oil or something on an outside background, and see how it goes. I've heard great things about "sealing" it to the background. And yours looks great.

 

You could always use construction paper for the back of the aquarium. I've done that with black construction paper. The only glare that I get is from a lamp that is on, but that doesn't bother me.

 

HI Fitz,

Thanks for the compliment....did you go for the external background sealed onto the tank in the end yourself?

What does it look like?

 

I actually did. I got some seaview from petco. But instead of using that for all my tanks. I figured out that vegetable oil does the same thing. It looks so much better now, and there's no reflections, so my rainbows colors stand out so much better.

 

Well done Fitz,

I'd recommend that sea clear oil to anyone who wants to mount a coloured/printed background, it really does brighten it up immensely and noooo reflections

 

Didn't like the video of the tapping on the glass... it upset fish.

 

It's not my video. And I agree that it does upset the fish.

 

Sorry Fitz!
I have been reading the posts with great interest..... I really want something no the back of my tanks to hide the cables etc. I had never heard of the vegetable oil trick!!

 

Yep it seems that just about any cooking oil will work.

 

It really.......really works Brainlady, no reflections, really bright. Jobs a goodun

 

I bought Sea View to put my plastic background on the tank. Looks great - very crisp and clear. Funny that I read this now, because after using the Sea View I thought I should have just used cooking oil -- exact same consistancy. Take a few ounces of cooking oil and market it as special adhesive for aquarium backgrounds. $$$

 

Yeah haha. The cooking oil gives it just about the same effect. But the seaview might have extra things put in it to make it better. I haven't really compared the two but both of them seal it to the back of the tank, which makes the color of the background and your fish pop.

 

Would vasoline/ petroleum jelly adhere a background more securely than oil? Its water repellent also, and could act more like a gluggy stick-to-things substance. And no gravity pulling it down as fast as oil would slide off.

 

The oil actually doesn't make the background slide at all. And I have heard of vaseline working also, but not sure about the petroleum jelly.