Tanks with a false panel on the back

[blackwater spa]

I've seen some gorgeous aquariums without any stray wires, tubing or heaters, etc getting in the way of the fish and plant displays. This seems to be achieved by having a false panel of glass at the back of the aquarium separating all the filter parts, heaters, etc away from the display at the front of the tank.

I'm very impressed with the visual appeal of this kind of setup, but...

Is this kind of setup effective in terms of keeping the front display area clear of debris (ie, mechanical filtration)?

Will placing the heater (and therefore the in-built thermostat) in the back compartment be adequate for maintaining the desired water temperature at the front of the aquarium?

Can the CO2 system be kept out of sight in the back compartment as well but still provide the benefits to the plants out the front?

What other advantages/disadvantages are there with this kind of setup?

Also, is there a special kind of black paint to use for this false back panel which is non-toxic for the fish and the plants?

I'm thinking of a tank which will be 5 ft x 2 ft x 2 ft...how much of this 2 ft width will be taken up by an easily serviceable hidden back compartment?

Whoever answers all my questions should write a book on fish tank design! :lol:

[wyldchyld01]

blackwater spa,

i agree lol, to try and help with but a few.

paint. i used gripset from bunnings a tar based compound for sealing water tanks that apparantly doesn't leach and didn't harm my africans, painted on a custom cut foam piece (myself and a blow torch managed this) which allowed for sand and other realism bits to be added probably harder with glass

yeah there were some cooler spots in the tank, i tried to overcome this by having outlet pipes (pvc under substrate, similar to suggested layouts for marine surge returns) returning water from the back, also put into this the return from co2 injection (through a power head air venturi type inlet, sure you know the little hole i'm talking about most cheapies have it just before the outlet).

no wires sure, keeping return pipes clean was a pain, kept losing fry (africans), glass would probably help with heat distribution but harder to attach plants foam easily attached using silicon.
About co2, really dunno kept having probs with the vacuum created on source so i gave up and went with normal style diffused injection but direct into tank through separate source.

re foam background, didn't have to clean it on the inside much, you would have to take into consideration getting your arm in there or something to remove algae with the glass (i reduced this issue with uv for a while before it died). sounds more like the overflow box sort of thing like used for marine but adapted to return straight to the tank, an import company i used to work for had the same sort of setup for sponge filtration on the left end of tanks and it was really easy to clean

hth

Brenton

[blackwater spa]

Thanks for sharing! Lots of food for thought there...