# Covering blue reef background



## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

About two years ago, my dentist gave me the 30 gallon reef setup from his waiting room. It wasn't in good shape when I got it and was turning into a money pit, so I took it down. It is presently sitting in the basement.

This is one of those setups that has the sump, skimmer, and pump all behind the background. The issue for me is that the background (acrylic I think) is blue. If I set this up again, it will be a freshwater tank with undemanding plants and/or a rift lake tank. I don't care for blue backgrounds and would like to cover it up.

But how? Keep in mind that the blue background is _inside_ the tank. Cork bark? Some kind of non-toxic wall covering? Now that I'm sitting here typing this, I'm just now thinking of a moss wall. Still, there might be something I haven't thought of.


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

A strange option would to get some black acrylic and attack it to the inside of the tank ...perhaps?


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Where might one get a hold of black acrylic sheeting?


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## Adam (Oct 19, 2004)

Look in your local yellow pages under "acrylic" or "plastic" usually every city has an acrylic dealer, unless its a really small town. You could always get some rocks and silcon them together and to the back of the tank to give it a rock wall look. You could probably even plant Anubias etc into this design and integrate it into the tank that way....


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

That gives me an idea. I wonder if I could just get sand to stick to the background instead of rocks. I could go with a dark tan or black that way. But how could I get a thin layer of glue (and of what type) on that background? Silicone? :?:


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## mm12463 (Mar 5, 2004)

Silicon for sure and stuff that is not for bathrooms. It doesn't spread thin though. Could also try some natural cork tile or cork and use the silicon to glue it to the background. I did it on a 10 and I know others have posted some stuff about large tanks.


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## fishfry (Apr 15, 2004)

how about your rough up the acrylic and make a custom moss wall background with taiwan moss or something

you don't have to rough it up too much, but just enough so the moss has something to grab onto


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## catnaxis (Apr 1, 2005)

To silicone your acrylic sheeting to the back of your tank,you should use GE 2 clear 100% silicone for windows and doors it will also say for indoor use the label will be blue and gold.I used it for a stone wall in my 65 gallon tank with my oscar,who is now picking the stones off the wall :???: but thats another story.


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