DIY Plain Black Background?

[mcrocker]

I'm looking for good ideas on what to use for a cheap plain black background. (other colors too if possible) The tank I have in mind is a little over 30" in height, so that makes most manufactured backgrounds a little too short.

I was thinking of something like black polythylene rolls from Home Depot, but the ones I've seen are a little thinner than I would want, so they would be tough to apply and keep entirely smooth. They are more like garbage bag thickness, whereas I would be interested in something a little thicker, like a regular 2D aquarium background.

I'm not too picky, I just want a plain black finish, either glossy or matte. I want it to be relatively cheap, and stay smooth on the tank. I've considered painting the back of the tank, but I want to be able to try out a background, and be able to easily remove it if I don't like it.

Any ideas?

[martialid10t]

You may want to consider spray paint. Krylon is a great brand. It's also removable albeit tedious to remove.

[gklaw]

Paint on glass is not hard to remove at all. $2 scrapers with razor blades

[Luc]

Or you could clean the back of the tank then buy poster paper from the dollar store and cut it to size and tape it on the back of the tank

[AWW]

most backdrops sold in pet stores are black on one side

[mcrocker]

I may consider painting, but it increases the work by a fair bit, even when applying. It would have been a good idea for me to do that before putting the tank in place...

It's a 6 foot tank that's fairly heavily stocked, and the back is about 6 inches or less from the wall. I will have to drain and empty the tank before I move it out from the wall to paint it. Not a massive project, but will take a fair bit of time and effort. Now that I think about, it I wouldn't want to paint a tank with fish in it anyway due to fumes / spatter potential, so the closeness to the wall doesn't affect it that much.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm giving more consideration to paint, but I'm still hoping for some source of a smooth sheet of black plastic that can come in one large enough piece and not be damaged by water. I don't anticipate water running down the back of the tank, but things around tanks can get wet, even just from fish splashing.

[mcrocker]

most backdrops sold in pet stores are black on one side

I looked around a little while ago, and most of the ones I found in local stores were no higher than 24". I need just a little more than this, probably around 27-28" to cover right up to the trim at the top of the tank.

If anybody knows of a local vendor that has them high enough, I would probably go with that.

[spit.fire]

fishworld aka puppies fish and critters has some that i believe is 48"

[g_spyder91]

Like Luc said get some black paper and stick it on the back of the tank.

[tang daddy]

With a large tank set up so close to the wall it maybe a challenge to paint, you might want to try out black sign board that can be found at industrial plastics on bridgeport in Richmond. The sheets are 4x8 ft if I am not mistaken, you would also need alot of duct tape to hold it up but that is the next option if you can't paint. I used it in the past but it's definitely not the first choice because if the glass is dirty or there is water stains it definitely shows up because of the space from the sign board and glass...