# backgrounds



## KyleT (Jul 22, 2002)

A cool thing I found out to kind of by accident is by making a wall of plants as your background. The Rotalica Indica that I bought from floridadriftwood.com awhile back has started to creep along the back of my tank making a nice wall. It actually looks really nice.


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## Steve Hampton (Jul 22, 2002)

I know Kyle is probably sick of hearing about cork.

Anyway, I like to use dark cork tiles for backgrounds. They are siliconed onto the back glass. They provide texture and a dark color contrast for plants. I staple, actually I push staples, into the cork to hold Java Fern and Java Moss on the cork. Eventually it fills in creating a "living wall". I've also used Bolbitus and Anubias attached to the cork. You can build terraces and caves with the cork. It also great for hiding filter inlet/uplift tubes.

For large tanks, it's hard to beat the look of simple black paint for the background.


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## KyleT (Jul 22, 2002)

No way Steve! I am actually pretty interested in using cork actually. IF I start another tank I think I might have to give it a try! 

Kyle


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## cramramdon (Jul 22, 2002)

Hell ya;
I really like that idea, its also a great way to conserve space in small aquariums. I'd like to try it for sure.

Where would I shop for dark cork tiles? 
Do the portions that arent covered by plants look dark enough to look like shadows, I mean can you tell its cork just by looking at it?

Thanx

cram


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## Steve Hampton (Jul 22, 2002)

> _Originally posted by cramramdon_Where would I shop for dark cork tiles?
> Do the portions that arent covered by plants look dark enough to look like shadows, I mean can you tell its cork just by looking at it?
> 
> Thanx
> ...


I've found the light and dark (which I prefer) locally at both Lowes and Ace Hardware.

The texture of the dark cork is very coarse. Most people wouldn't have a clue that it's cork when looking at it. Depending on the amount of lighting and plants, most of the background just looks like a natural woody bank.


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## GulfCoastAquarian (Jul 30, 2002)

Giant Hygro (_Nomaphelia Siamesis_) and Sagittaria have been my favorite background plants. Spreading quickly and growing tall. I especially love how the Sagittaria grows tall enough to bend and stretch across the back of the tank, covering my spray bar return from my canister filter.

I've used a printed background up until now, but am considering painting the back black. Or maybe black posterboard. Hard to beat the depth of the black paint, though.


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## Pooky125 (Jul 30, 2002)

Oh, I dunno, I have cork on one of my tanks, (just plain) and it looks really good, been meaning to get things growningon it, but im tearing down that tank anyway so.. what would be the point?


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## artmusic247 (Jul 31, 2002)

Cork is a awesome background material. I used the darker tile cork, from a hardware store, in a paludarium. One trick I discovered is gluing layers of panel cork on top of each other to create a more gradual slope. Once I did that, I got my planting tweezers to pinch out little piece of cork to give it a rougher more natural texture. 

Another interesting thing I discovered at a local plant nursery is that they sell natural cork. When I mean natural, I mean like right off the tree and not processed to form panels. The piece were about 20" X 20" and cost about $20. To me this added realism is worth it. 

I hope this give you some new ideas.


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