aquarium backgrounds

CHILLI RED

New Member
What does everyone use to attach their aquarium backgrounds? I use tape but it doesnt make the colour show up very bright. I have heard some people put a thin layer of vaseline or something on it and stick it to the tank. What works the best? Also I see that a certain chain store sells something in a tube to put on the background. A fvriend of mine said he tried vaseline and it looked awful- lots of bubbles everywhere and it was hard to clen it off. Any suggestions would be great.
 
I've heard of people painting their glass black, or some other colour, but I imagine that if you ever want it off it'd be a bit of a pain.

I personally have a pexi-glass tank; so I'm stuck with blue vs. my 1st choice of black.
 
What I find about aquarium backgrounds is that no matter what, your background will always get bubbles between the glass and no matter how much you squeegee it, as time pass buy air would get in. Haven't tried vaseline yet but I tried soap water as the guys at arofanatics suggested but still didn't work. The backgrounds colour varies as each pocket of buble in the background gives off a lighter colour than those that sticks.

I saw some online stuff thats "glue paste" to your oyama paper and suppose to work. But I gave up and just went bare tank.
 
On another note on paint it, maybe if you use those very very very extreeeeeemeeely peelable paint, that prob would work, when you want to remove the paint, but those solvant that you put on the paint so it just "peel" off. Stuff they use on wood to peel the paint off for a new coat and colour. Just a thought........NEVER DONE THIS B4 ok? So....exerpiment with a small peace of glass, not your tank and give it a go.
 
its all about OYAMA PAPER... soap + water will do it.. dont really need soap, but makes ur hard work in squeegeeing more noticable.

in terms of regular background paper, just use tape.. lol im too cheap to use regular background paper.. i just cut up a garbage bag n taped it to the back! ha! beat that!
 
All my tanks have painted backs, regular blue acrylic, when I upgraded 33gl's to 50gl's on the racks, all I did is used a razor with water, didn't scratch the glass and tanks were like new (I sold them). - see my welcome thread for how blue background tanks look.
 
I guess it's just me but I dont use one at all on any tank. I am not a fan of them.

Does it make the colour come out more on the Aro if it's black?
 
Jackson:
Yes it does. From reading on other forums, the consensus is black for reds, blue for golds. But it also depends on personal tastes.
 
For almost 30 years, I've taken aluminum foil, crumpled it how I like it,
paint it whatever color, sometimes mix whites, greys, blues, if you use
spray paint you can kinda blend and make some neat rocky looking shoal
backgrounds, when you put it on with tape, it doesnt matter if it touches
the tank, it still looks cool. Actually, I loosely hang it from the top, attach
on a couple spots on the bottom, and maybe one on the sides/middle to
at least make it look semi seamless. I've also used paint directly on tanks,
water based acrylic comes off real easy with a razor blade and you can get
kinda artisty with it. Then you can say you backgrounds dont look like
anyone elses!
 
Interesting thought, I use to do similar in USSR (just no crumble part) in early 80's - can you post a pic of your creation?
 
About the aluminium foil, are you using the ones you get at grocery stores? I don't think its wide enough so I think yours you tape it to make it wide enough to cover the tank?
 
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