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Re: Black Back on an Acrylic Tank

     On Sat, 27 Sep 1997 Jim Spencer asked "I was wondering if anyone out 
     there has bought an acrylic tank with a black back and if they thought 
     it was worth the extra cost?"
     
     Jim,
     
     IMHO a black background tends to wash out the color of many fish (i.e. 
     they are hard to see).  Blue backgrounds are often a bit to bright and 
     have an unnatural appearance.  I paint the back of all of my aquariums 
     with a really dark green paint we had custom mixed for the shutters on 
     our house.  Dark greens and browns are much more natural and add some 
     depth to your aquarium without detracting from your plants or fish.
     
     If your nervous about painting the back of your tank, or you have a 
     glass tank, try the following...
     
     Take a 1/2" piece of hard blue foam insulation available from home 
     improvement stores (the same kind you should be using under your tank 
     ;-) ), cut it to the exact size of the back of your aquarium, and 
     paint with any good exterior household latex.  Let the paint dry 
     thoroughly and use black electrical tape to attach it to your 
     aquarium.  If you run the tape flat around the outside of the foam, 
     you can hide the edges of the foam and just slightly overlap the end 
     of the pane of glass or acrylic (on a glass aquarium you will have to 
     bend the tape in an "L" shape to fit over the plastic frame on the top 
     and bottom of the aquarium)
     
     I used this method on a tank four years ago and it is still working 
     great.  It's unobtrusive, looks super and also adds some additional 
     insulation to maintain a more stable environment in the tank.
     
     Hope this helps!
     
     Mike
     
     Michael Dunn
     michael.dunn at thalhimer_com