Acrylic paint or styrofoam or acrylic sheets, for the background.

[Mr. Casper]

Hello everyone, I was looking to fill in a background for my 15 gallon aquarium. It is 2 feet long, 1 feet tall and 1 feet wide. It houses a 3-4 inch flowerhorn as of now. In the future(3-4 months from now) I want to turn this into a betta tank.
Now I am not too sure about what to go for with respect to background. Obviously different people have different opinions and different experiences with their background choices. I just want to know everything there is to know when choosing a background, the color, the material type, what is better and why is it better and so on. I thought I'll just maybe go with plain black, keep it simple sort of stuff. But I want to get some input anyways before I get started. [ would love budget friendly options as I am still not earning]
Thank you.

 

[FishBeast]

Styro is cheap and looks realistic if you coat with thin layer of concrete, You can style or shape to your heart's content. Cons include messy unless you use hot knife to cut and also the concrete will need to cure a bit.

 

[Mr. Casper]

Styro is cheap and looks realistic if you coat with thin layer of concrete, You can style or shape to your heart's content. Cons include messy unless you use hot knife to cut and also the concrete will need to cure a bit.

what care should be taken while choosing the type of concrete? And when I say 'buy Styrofoam' online, many of them are replaced by thermocol. Are they the same? If not, can I use thermocol instead of Styrofoam as it is easily available.

 

[FishBeast]

Yes thermocol is the right stuff. Also known as polystyrene... just buy sheets and silicone together. After that you can carve your design...
use quikcrete hydraulic cement. 1 thin layer at a time. Rough up the styro surface to improve adhesion

 

[Mr. Casper]

Yes thermocol is the right stuff. Also known as polystyrene... just buy sheets and silicone together. After that you can carve your design...
use quikcrete hydraulic cement. 1 thin layer at a time. Rough up the styro surface to improve adhesion

Cool, thank you..

 

[islandguy11]

FishBeast's good advice regarding styrofoam/thermocol aside, OP I personally would reconsider using any kind of in-tank background with that tank -- it's already really small, adding a 3-d type background is just going to take up water volume and space that your fish (even a solo betta) would appreciate.

Also detritus/waste can get caught behind them if not properly sealed, and taking it out if you decide you don't like it anymore once it's properly sealed can be a bother, esp. if fish in the tank.

I would suggest to consider something simpler (and even more budget friendly): colored future board on the outside of the tank. Sure it's not going to look as nice as a 3d background (or even painted background), but it's easy to install and easy to change if you want to try a different color that looks better with your fish (though black usually looks best imo).

 

[FishBeast]

FishBeast's good advice regarding styrofoam/thermocol aside, OP I personally would reconsider using any kind of in-tank background with that tank -- it's already really small, adding a 3-d type background is just going to take up water volume and space that your fish (even a solo betta) would appreciate.

Also detritus/waste can get caught behind them if not properly sealed, and taking it out if you decide you don't like it anymore once it's properly sealed can be a bother, esp. if fish in the tank.

I would suggest to consider something simpler (and even more budget friendly): colored future board on the outside of the tank. Sure it's not going to look as nice as a 3d background (or even painted background), but it's easy to install and easy to change if you want to try a different color that looks better with your fish (though black usually looks best imo).

View attachment 1394115

This is a great idea! I completely missed the OP tank size there too

 

[islandguy11]

This is a great idea! I completely missed the OP tank size there too

Downside is that there will usually be somewhat more reflection from the glass it's applied to (compared to say a layer of paint, which wouldn't have a thin layer of air like future board, but for me the flexibility and ease of change trumps this. Besides my Kamfa tank (black), it's convenient to use with my Gold Xback Arowana's tank, which has gone through transitions of white to blue and then eventually black as part of its grooming process.

 

[Ruturaj]

I built a moss wall for my tank, looks nice, adds natural feel, at a lower capacity acts a filter and soaks nitrates.

 

[Mr. Casper]

FishBeast's good advice regarding styrofoam/thermocol aside, OP I personally would reconsider using any kind of in-tank background with that tank -- it's already really small, adding a 3-d type background is just going to take up water volume and space that your fish (even a solo betta) would appreciate.

Also detritus/waste can get caught behind them if not properly sealed, and taking it out if you decide you don't like it anymore once it's properly sealed can be a bother, esp. if fish in the tank.

I would suggest to consider something simpler (and even more budget friendly): colored future board on the outside of the tank. Sure it's not going to look as nice as a 3d background (or even painted background), but it's easy to install and easy to change if you want to try a different color that looks better with your fish (though black usually looks best imo).

View attachment 1394115

Well yes, this actually makes sense. Well in that case I can simply go with a vinyl wrap on the outside of the aquarium then, isn't it ? And also those coloured boards, are those sun boards or again Styrofoam ?