Black background

Question
My husband just got a fish tank that is a custom made from black acrylic. how can we add color to the back so we can actually see our fish?? we thought of putting a mirror against the back but are worried about it being toxic. i read another question someone had asked you about putting the plastic background inside the tank and you suggested that is probably not a good idea. so what options do we have??

Answer
Hi Andra,

I've never heard of an aquarium being built from black acrylic - stands for aquariums, maybe. If the aquarium were black, you couldn't look through it to see the fish! I must have misunderstood. An aquarium, whether made of acrylic or glass, must be transparent.

The ways to add backgrounds to aquariums are as follows:

1. Paint the background. This is what some people do - they paint the outside of the back panel of glass. Sometimes you can get interesting effects if you combine colors. Some people use spray paint, some use regular household paint - whatever you use, it's going to be very difficult to remove, so be certain before you do it. Otherwise you're going to be scraping with a razorblade for a long time!

2. Get an aquarium background and tape it to the outside. This is what MOST people do. They buy an aquarium background, cut it so is the exact length of the back panel of glass, and tape it to the outside. Aquarium backgrounds come in many different designs. Some are reflective foil backgrounds (usually in either blue or silver) some are self-adhesive (usually solid colored) but most are just pictures, sometimes two sided pictures or sometimes one side is a picture and another is a solid color. A popular one is a solid black background with a solid blue background on the reverse side.

Some people tape a backgrounds to the wall behind the aquarium, this gives a 3D effect. The background needs to be longer than your tank, if you decide to do this. Obviously, it won't work in a corner.

3. Get a 3D background for your tank. This is popular in Europe, such as Back to Nature backgrounds:
http://www.backtonature.se/index.html
These are expensive, and unfortunately not so easy to find in the USA. If you would like to learn more, go to Google and type - aquarium 3d background. They look fantastic, probably the best thing you can do for your aquarium! They don't work so well if you have a plecostomus or other sucking, rasping fish - they will scrape the paint right off.

As far as putting a mirror inside of an aquarium, I have heard of it being done, but have no experience with it. Anything I find out about it will have been from Googling - mirror background aquarium - so I won't comment on this. Suffice it to say, you need to use 100% silicone and read up on the curing period - it depends on how big your tank is because this will determine how much silicone you use.

I hope those suggestions help, take care. Have a nice weekend!
Nicole