Aquarium backlighting
- Thread starter mavena
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- back glass backlight
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I'm currently not doing it but considering it after I establish my tank again after I move in a week. The room I am putting the tank in will be mostly consumed by the tank. I have considered a small RGB backlight along the baseboards but not much thought has been put into it.
Hm, nice idea. Would really love to see some examples.
From what I understand, just a white background reflexts the light aggressively and does not look calm therefore. I saw some tanks with transparent background and a white sheet like 1 inch behind the glass to avoid that reflection, which looked cool.
So why not use a backlight like in freshwater? they look amazing
From what I understand, just a white background reflexts the light aggressively and does not look calm therefore. I saw some tanks with transparent background and a white sheet like 1 inch behind the glass to avoid that reflection, which looked cool.
So why not use a backlight like in freshwater? they look amazing
I have done this on some freshwater tanks in the past but most reef tanks are painted black or blue so it would be hard to get the same backlighting effect that looks awesome for freshwater tanks.
I also think it's not as realistic as most underwater reef pictures are black/dark blue while freshwater underwater pictures seem to have more of that ombre look but it would be curious to see what that would look like on a reef tank.
Curious as to how this may impact algae growth.
Might be something similar to why most use black silicone as opposed to clear.... it's do-able, it may just invite more algae than wanted.
Might be something similar to why most use black silicone as opposed to clear.... it's do-able, it may just invite more algae than wanted.
I did this with my old 75g freshwater tank, which lives on as my current freshwater sump!
Just a roll of opaque window privacy film laid on the back and cut to size; it’s still on there, and not even bubbling over a decade later! (This then had a waterproof 4ft RGB LED strip light attached to a wood strip cut to 10 degrees laying behind the tank, shining against the privacy film!)
For my recent rebuild on my 180g freshwater, I opted to get a pair of custom mirrors cut, 72”x21”, and 24”x14” respectively… these were siliconed by short edges only to the exterior of rear pane and overflow side pane, with another silicone bead along the top edges to prevent water ingress between tank glass and mirrors!
Just a roll of opaque window privacy film laid on the back and cut to size; it’s still on there, and not even bubbling over a decade later! (This then had a waterproof 4ft RGB LED strip light attached to a wood strip cut to 10 degrees laying behind the tank, shining against the privacy film!)
For my recent rebuild on my 180g freshwater, I opted to get a pair of custom mirrors cut, 72”x21”, and 24”x14” respectively… these were siliconed by short edges only to the exterior of rear pane and overflow side pane, with another silicone bead along the top edges to prevent water ingress between tank glass and mirrors!
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