# DIY Plain Black Background?



## mcrocker

I'm looking for good ideas on what to use for a cheap plain black background. (other colors too if possible) The tank I have in mind is a little over 30" in height, so that makes most manufactured backgrounds a little too short.

I was thinking of something like black polythylene rolls from Home Depot, but the ones I've seen are a little thinner than I would want, so they would be tough to apply and keep entirely smooth. They are more like garbage bag thickness, whereas I would be interested in something a little thicker, like a regular 2D aquarium background.

I'm not too picky, I just want a plain black finish, either glossy or matte. I want it to be relatively cheap, and stay smooth on the tank. I've considered painting the back of the tank, but I want to be able to try out a background, and be able to easily remove it if I don't like it.

Any ideas?


----------



## DR1V3N

You may want to consider spray paint. Krylon is a great brand. It's also removable albeit tedious to remove.


----------



## gklaw

Paint on glass is not hard to remove at all. $2 scrapers with razor blades


----------



## Luc

Or you could clean the back of the tank then buy poster paper from the dollar store and cut it to size and tape it on the back of the tank


----------



## AWW

most backdrops sold in pet stores are black on one side


----------



## mcrocker

I may consider painting, but it increases the work by a fair bit, even when applying. It would have been a good idea for me to do that before putting the tank in place...

It's a 6 foot tank that's fairly heavily stocked, and the back is about 6 inches or less from the wall. I will have to drain and empty the tank before I move it out from the wall to paint it. Not a massive project, but will take a fair bit of time and effort. Now that I think about, it I wouldn't want to paint a tank with fish in it anyway due to fumes / spatter potential, so the closeness to the wall doesn't affect it that much.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm giving more consideration to paint, but I'm still hoping for some source of a smooth sheet of black plastic that can come in one large enough piece and not be damaged by water. I don't anticipate water running down the back of the tank, but things around tanks can get wet, even just from fish splashing.


----------



## mcrocker

AWW said:


> most backdrops sold in pet stores are black on one side


I looked around a little while ago, and most of the ones I found in local stores were no higher than 24". I need just a little more than this, probably around 27-28" to cover right up to the trim at the top of the tank.

If anybody knows of a local vendor that has them high enough, I would probably go with that.


----------



## spit.fire

fishworld aka puppies fish and critters has some that i believe is 48"


----------



## g_spyder91

Like Luc said get some black paper and stick it on the back of the tank.


----------



## tang daddy

With a large tank set up so close to the wall it maybe a challenge to paint, you might want to try out black sign board that can be found at industrial plastics on bridgeport in Richmond. The sheets are 4x8 ft if I am not mistaken, you would also need alot of duct tape to hold it up but that is the next option if you can't paint. I used it in the past but it's definitely not the first choice because if the glass is dirty or there is water stains it definitely shows up because of the space from the sign board and glass...


----------



## Impossibles

You could also check sign places, they can print out vinyl decal material that you can stick on the rear of the tank and roll out the bubbles.

I chatted to a guy who did vehicle decalling about this once and he said it would be no problem and the materials are fairly cheap.


----------



## mitchb

I got a piece of the black sign board that was custom cut for my 180 as I really didn't want to empty the tank to put a background on. It wasn't the normal sign board but another piece of material they had, so it wasn't as glossy. Was around $50 but well worth it as I literally just slid it behind the tank, and it was strong enough not to bend as opposed to trying to put up a vinyl one from the fishstore.


----------



## AdamsB

Spray paint or if your worried about removing it, get a standard background, flip it over to the black side and use vaseline to stick it to the tank. Yhis will give it a nice crisp colour, works fantastic for the graphic side of the background. Although in my opinion vaseline is harder to remove from glass than spray paint


----------



## Gregzz4

I used matte black awning material and industrial velcro
It doesnt hold water and can be moved aside if you want to use an algae magnet
Any fabric store stuff would probably work just fine as the velcro holds it taught


----------



## jmo526

i use construction paper


----------



## Victor

I vote for paint. It's really easy to get off if you want it off later on.


----------



## neven

if you do attatch a background, make sure you dont have it touching the glass, looks horrible when water falls behind between the backgroudn and back of the tank and isn't able to drip down and dry


----------



## shelby67

How about a piece of fabric over cardboard... Looks great.


----------



## neven

i used a heavy duty garbage bag over cardboard as well, you can even texture it a bit to give depth


----------



## gklaw

Loonie stores sells plastic table cloth for parties dirt cheap. Different shades of blue and green - well if you really want, pink as well  I bought a piece of deep ocean blue - $1.50 or so - almost cheaper than garbage bag, by sf for sure. 

Was going to wrap it on a board, slip it between wall and tank and velcro that to the rim of the 150g tall (which is no more  ) so it won't touch the glass at all. Background from LFS would have been around $30!


----------



## rdale2

*black garbage bag*

I just taped a black garbage bag on the outside of the back. My tank is pressed up against a wall so you don't see that side anyways. I think it looks pretty good, because it's not a perfect surface and has some of the folding lines still in the plastic it has some neat textures. Here's a video of it...

First Aquarium Setup - YouTube


----------



## NODES

Black Plasti dip and 100% removable when you need to


----------

