How to remove reflections from bottom panel?

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philipraposo1982

philipraposo1982

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Feb 21, 2016
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My festae clears a large area of her tank floor and then gets stressed from trying to battle her reflection all day.

If I cover it up she just remove the gravel again. Why does she always do this but then looks stressed? How can I stop this or block all reflections? I need some ideas.

The second I come gome and see her at the tank she starts to immediately color back up and will focus on me and not her reflection.

I was thinking about putting tile down under the gravel. That way she can move the gravel but shouldn't have a reflections. At least I think this might work. Thoughts?
 
You have to paint it on the inside of the tank or else you still just have a mirror.
 
I've considered lightly acid etching the inside bottom glass but never actually done so.
 
Is there really a reflection?

When you look into an aquarium from the outside, any panel at a perpendicular angle to it will appear mirrored. Look through the front to the back panel of your aquarium, unless it is actually a mirror it doesn’t reflect to any great degree. Now look at your side glass from the front and it will appear mirrored. Now go to a side and look through it, the other side will not be reflective but the front and back panels will appear to be. The bottom will appear reflective from front, sides and back because it is perpendicular to all of them, from the top or inside it won’t (unless the absence of light underneath plays a factor, I could be wrong, I’ve never looked straight down on a bare bottom tank with darkness below to say with absolute certainty).

Cichlids often dig. It’s probably trying to dig a big enough depression to make it comfortable or to find a solid surface. I’m thinking the painted bottom idea, or something directly under or on top of it is a good idea. It would sure be interesting to get into a fish’s psyche and know what they think about being suspended in a body of water that is visually open to air from all sides

(10 minutes later)... Ah... just did a bit of research on “total internal reflection” and there’s a bunch of stuff that explains the physics of light refraction and it all seems to boil down to angles. There’s a YouTube video out there where a guy put his camera into a tank and any panel the camera was pointed at clearly could see out into the room, but panels at an extreme angle to the camera’s view appeared mirrored. Basically, if they’re looking directly ahead, there is no mirror effect.
 
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