im planning the set up of a new tank and im thinking of trying sand as i have always used gravel and at this stage im leaning towards black sand. I also like the lighter sand but i dont like seeing all the crap on the bottom and im hoping to get a JD aswell and i hear the colour up better with a dark substrate, i wouldnt rull out a really dark brown or gery sand aswell. I was also planning the paint the back of the tank black, do you guys think that would be to much black? if i dont have a black back ground i could go for a 3d rock backgroung.
Anyone here have a black back ground with black substrate? if so post some pics, it would be great to see them.

sorry mate... all my tanks are see through

I've been toying with black gravel but the jury is still out on that one

Before you paint your tank I'd get a black back drop and put that behind first save a lot of scrapping if you decide against it

Cheers Gazza

I know what you are talking about with the black on black. I like that look a lot. In fact one of my tanks is black gravel with black background(not painted). and coincidently it has a 11" Jack Dempsey in it.

All i can add is that i had black gravel in my old 90Gl, and i had a piece of black cloth wrapped around the back of the tank.







And in my puffertank i don't have black gravel but i did use a piece of cardboard with a layer of black felt.



No permanent thing on both tanks, but the tanks seem to be a whole lot deeper than they really are, due to the black background.

Mind you, you kinda need shiny and bright coloured fish to make it work.
If you got dull coloured fish, like in my case some phantom salmon for instance, they get lost in front of the black of the background.
You can hardly see those anymore.
So for those fish, i prefer a LFS background with some crevices, to make the fish stand out more:






But to be honest i prefer the diy background and the light gravel on my main tank, for it looks the most natural of all my tanks.



the lights do a better job on the light gravel, opposite to the dark, due to the reflection and that's a definate pro, especially with the Blue nightlights on.

hey gazza, i have a stick on black back ground in my current tank and i like the look of it but i can never get the bubbles out so i know i like the look of it....and if i want some thing different i would go with a 3d background and that could be stuck on and the paint would not have to be removed.
thanks for the pics noddy...i like the look of the substrate in your puffer tank, is it brown? and the tank other tank dose that have a 3d back ground and black substrate?

The fish i have are clown loaches, silver dollars, gold sev, blue acara and of course my oscar which shouild all stand out nicely but my BGK might be a bit hard to see aswell as my red tail shark and bristle nose. I also have a chocolate cichlid but i will be rehoming him because he is to shy and spend all his time hiding behind the filter pipes

I actually thought of a curtain type thing like Noddy did

I had a brain fart when reading this. Bit hard when set up but take the tank to a car window tinting place and get the back tinted in that black mirror tint that would look cool

cheers Gazza

would look niceeeeee maybe a 2tone tint =]

...I hit the sack
I've been too long I'm glad to be back
Yes I'm, let loose
From the noose
That's kept me hanging about...

hey csbosound do u have any pics of the mentioned tank?

bigtdotcom wrote:

the gravel in my puffer tank is some black gravel and some purple tiny gravel, combined with grey metallic as the main gravel.
That one bag of metallic coloured cost me just as much as 5 bags of the black gravel.
My community tank has a juwel background and black/dark brown gravel.
that background is not attached to anything, it came with the tank and the size seems to be made especially for that tank.
i just had to slide that in, and it fastened itself under the glass back ledge, due to the buoyance of the material.

the girl i got that tank from had her fish dying all the time, and when i took the tank apart to clean it it kept smelling like dead fish.
I pulled the background loose, it was siliconed in place, and it turned out there was a dead fish behind the background, rotting and obviously keeping the water in bad shape.

btw. i'm glad i didn't do a permanent black background on the puffertank,
because i like the bright blue kinda backgrounds, like they have at out LFS very much too!
like this, which is actually my red oscar when he was still at the LFS with his siblings:


i may wanna change to that one day, and it'll only take me a moment to switch if i like.

well that dosent sound to healthy does it noddy =[
but i am glad yu found it =]
tanks look awsome