# finally finished my tanks with backgrounds take a look



## Guest (Jul 4, 2011)

so this was a huge nightmare to undertake i had a guy in washington make a few of these custom for me and the other two were premade backgrounds still have one tank to go gota touch up the paint on the background and figure out how im scaping it... anyways enjoy let me know what you think and if anyone wants backgrounds made i can hook u up with the guy he did them real cheap

125 gallon mixed mostly male malawi haps and peacocks, slimline custom made background stems in front and heaters on the side 









125 gallon tanganyikan tank slimline messa aqua-terra background filter stems in front and heaters on the sides









75 gallon mixed malawi tank designs by nature background stems and heater in back









55 gallon custom plumbed (heaters and filter stems in back) background malawi (and gold occies)









75 gallon custom plumbed cyps and malawi


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## Morpheen (Jul 21, 2010)

I really like the backgrounds, they always help make the tank look a little more natural. The giant sponge filters are killing it for me though.


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## Cromak (Dec 29, 2010)

agree, the huge sponges and all those tubes running everywhere kill it for me as well..


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I like the designs by nature background. =D>


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## Guest (Jul 6, 2011)

the sponge filters are a necessary evil unfortunately.. *** had my biological crash before.. with a sponge filter that never happens.. some of the backgrounds have channels in the back for the air line tubing and then u dont even see them.. unfortunately one one of them the lip of the tank covers all the channels so i couldnt use them.. my aim wasnt really to make the tanks look as natural as possible.. the fish dont know they are in fish jail... it was jut to make them pleasing to the eye for me.. so i can look at them and be like wow that looks great..next time ill take all the airstones out for pics  lol

and yea donna the designs by nature one was a steal got it on craiglist for $70 in clifton. had to chop a large piece of it off to make it fit thou.. that one and the round rocks one arent even in with silicone they are just wedged in there nice and tight


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## Chunkanese (Feb 4, 2011)

They look great, also agreed on the sponge filters and airlines. You have lines running all over the place. Reminds me of a tangled mess behind a TV. If you run the airlines down the corners they wont be seen as much. In reality bubbles and airstones do very little. I would just put in a small power head if your worried about oxygen. And if that powerhead has a sponge head on it, it would eliminate the need for your giant sponge and airstones. Less wires, less power needed, smaller electric bill.

The background and tanks still look great though. I feel like i have seen those last 2 before. They look fantastic though especially the river rock.


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## mitamariana (Jul 11, 2011)

Very very very nice


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## Bradyk (Sep 26, 2011)

m1ke715m just wanted thank you, I found these guys from a friend of mine on here after I read this. Your tanks look awesome man, I'm jelous that you have so many. I'm very happy with mine that they built. Lovin that river rock one. :thumb:


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## Guest (Sep 26, 2011)

no prob.. danny is an awesome dude.. i have way more tanks that this those are just the ones with the backgrounds in them lol im up to 17 tanks in an 800 square foot 1 bedroom apartment.. but it really doesnt look bad the way i set all the tanks up..

glad you got a background as well post up some pics of it


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## Dominateprimate (Aug 27, 2011)

Is your first background on the outside of your tank? Howd you get it around your HOB. Filters. Reason i ask is i want.a background in my tank so bad but im being forced to use 2 HOB filters


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2011)

its only 1-2" thick.. so the filter stems go in front of it.. same with the 2nd one down.. they are "slimlines" the first pic is of a custom made one and the 2nd one is an aqua-terra brand.. they have to be siliconed to the back of the tank.. they are inside the tank.. if you get lucky and have an old tank with no center brace and you get a background thats in 1 piece you can just wedge it under the top plastic center brace piece that runs the length of the tank on all sides... getting a 6ft long background shipped to your house costs more than the background thou.. so it had to be cut into 3 pieces and it still cost alot to ship from the west coast to the east coast and it took a week to show up.. the aqua-terra backgrounds come in 20" pieces i believe and you just buy as many pieces as you need.. theres 2 different end pieces and they just fit into each other.. you really have to silicone them.. i got lucky with the river rock background it was slightly too long so i had to cut it shave a lil off the side and repaint it with some paint the same color the guy sent me and i wedged it in with it tapered out a bit to make room for the heater and filter stem.. if you really want one danny can make you one that will def work he gets all your measurements gets the exact filters you are going to use and uses them to mock up the background to make it work.. granted sometimes things dont work as planned as all tanks are not made the exact same dimensions some have thicker glass and what not... so sometimes you have to modify it a bit but it was simple to do... msg me if you want his info the prices were pretty cheap for the background and it was like $30 or $40 to ship once we found an economical size box to ship them in.. had to cut a 4ft background into 3 pieces a 6 ft tank would probly have to be in 5 to fit in a 20" box


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