How to Craft a Realistic Background for a Reef Aquarium

If you are looking for something to give your salt-water or reef aquarium an added lift and a point uniqueness, you should consider crafting your own realistic aquarium background. You may already have one of the commercially available pre-printed reef backgrounds. However there are limited choices and all of the variations available are much of the same. Use this handy tutorial to learn how to craft a realistic background for a reef aquarium.

Things You'll Need

  • A piece of sturdy paper or card in ocean colors
  • Old aquarium and habitat magazines
  • A pair of scissors
  • Paper paste or craft glue
  • Contact paper, cling film or similar plastic wrap
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Instructions

    • 1

      Choose your piece of card in a color such as silver, blue, sand, a nice dark green can also look quite attractive. You want a piece which is a color that looks like ocean reef water. The card needs to be large enough to cover the back of your aquarium entirely.

    • 2

      Measure your aquarium and transfer the dimensions to your background paper. If you need to tape a few sheets together, be sure to place the tape on the back of the background as plastic can be difficult to glue and may even shine off-puttingly, ruining your realistic reef effect

    • 3

      Now, flick through the magazines you gathered for pictures of salt water and reef marine life. Rocks, corals, plants and invertebrates, should be the types of marine life you are aiming for. Stay away from things such as fish, and other larger animals as the realistic effect of your aquarium background may be lessened by their lack of movement.

    • 4

      Cut out the pictures you want to use making sure there are no white edges on the pictures. You may have to cut into the picture a little to achieve this.

    • 5

      Starting with the biggest pictures of rocks and corals, start arranging them on the paper. You may want to lay the entire picture out and play with placement before using any glue on the pictures. Or you can simply go from largest to smallest pictures, pasting them onto your reef aquarium background as you go.

    • 6

      Once you have placed your large pictures you can populate your rock and coral with invertebrates such as starfish and sponges. However you choose to layout your aquarium background, it is important to make sure the pictures are flat and to allow time for each layer to dry before pasting on the next.

    • 7

      Now all that is left to do is cover your aquarium background with your chosen clear plastic film to keep it water tight. If you are using something which is not sticky, such as cling film, use some clear packing tape on the back of your background to fix the cling-film. Carefully attach your realistic reef background with tape to the back of your aquarium and you will have a beautiful and unique background for your reef aquarium.