Question re: back of tank - keep glass clean or not?

[globaldesigns]

I personally don't clean it, but to each his own. It does look nice when it is clean. But I also think a tank developes character when you just leave it alone.

[Canadian]

Personal preference: keep it clean - the colors of the corals and fish "pop" more against a clean black background. And ultimately the whole point in having a display tank is to "display" the inhabitants optimally.

Second option: cover the back in reef ceramics of some sort giving the appearance of a reef ledge providing additional places beyond the rock work to attach corals.

[Leah]

Hi Len,

I leave mine behind the rock... where no one can see it...but keep in mind that if you ever want to change your rock work, it will be harder scraping it off...totally up to you though.

[chris88]

This might change your mind. The difference is much more noticeable in person.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=62716

[naesco]

In my opinion never clean it.
It may look picture perfect if you do clean it but here is the downside.

Many reefers take care to remove detritus from the bottom of their tanks. They also take care to stop any non-macro algae, small outcropping of cyno from growing their tanks.

By leaving the back of your tank alone, tiny crabs, shrimp, pods, bacteria and many many other critters have a place to home and to eat and avoid being eaten and breed.

These critters are food or provide food through their eggs and larvae to the corals and some of the smaller fish in your tank.

[StirCrazy]

leave it be, remove undesiriable algae, and encourage coraline growth. having clean back glass is horable when your trying to take pictures, give you washed out pictures unless you know how to edit them and gives you a ton of reflections in the pics. the ideal thing would be to get black glass for the back and have it etched to remove any reflective surface, you want to see colors pop.. try a black background.

Steve

[PoonTang]

I just let mine grow wild.

[BCOrchidGuy]

The clean back looks sterile to me, as Naesco said the growth provides shelter for a number of critters. I think the coraline algae looks wonderful on the back.

Doug

[BlueAbyss]

Originally Posted by naesco

By leaving the back of your tank alone, tiny crabs, shrimp, pods, bacteria and many many other critters have a place to home and to eat and avoid being eaten and breed.

I have to agree with this... the 10 gallon that I just dismantled had a turf of GHA (and the beginnings of some coralline), hundreds of tiny 'pods, worms, and snails living in it. It didn't look bad either, when it was turkey basted daily...

But now that I've moved everything into a shiny clean tank, I must say that I really like the clean glass. It looks great and doesn't trap detritus (the turf would catch small particles and start to look 'dusty' after a day or two). This new tank isn't sitting right against a wall, so I will scrape this one... but if you can see the wall, I wouldn't bother. Wall reflection is uglier than coralline growth, IMO.

As far as using black glass, don't bother... get automotive window tint, it has a similar effect if you use a deep tint and is reasonably durable and easily removed if you get bored of it. EDIT: Oops, missed the 'etched' part about avoiding reflection. Does black glass work that way?

[ElGuappo]

i clean above my rockscape occasionally. I never do behind the rockscape. i dont do the sides either when they are not viewable.