I ran PVC up the back of the outside of the tank and then put 1/2'' hose barbs on it so I could connect the exhaust or intake end of my filter via hose. I did this to make it easier to move, work with, and change later.
The space between the background and the fish tank doesn't actually exist. It's filled with expanding pond foam which has cured making that whole area a solid block of foam. If you haven't worked with pond foam before then let me be the first to tell you it is extremely durable and strong. Considering the the implementation I used, water pressure isn't going to do anything to the background or the foam. Both are secured tightly.
I don't have any great pictures to show, but the concept is relatively self explanatory. Instead of having all the algae problems and issues with fish getting stuck or whatever behind the background I just filled it with foam so nothing could get behind it. Any algae or bacteria that develops in small air pockets won't be able to interface with the water in the tank enough to toss the levels off.
In hindsight I probably could of laid the pvc first and then just foamed around it (thus hiding it), but that would put a lot of pressure on the PVC and could have other effects (such as generating an air pocket for water to get into). It might have looked cool but more elements means more points of failure. I didn't want to go down that road with this portion of the project.
Hopefully that does a better job of explaining it.
The space between the background and the fish tank doesn't actually exist. It's filled with expanding pond foam which has cured making that whole area a solid block of foam. If you haven't worked with pond foam before then let me be the first to tell you it is extremely durable and strong. Considering the the implementation I used, water pressure isn't going to do anything to the background or the foam. Both are secured tightly.
I don't have any great pictures to show, but the concept is relatively self explanatory. Instead of having all the algae problems and issues with fish getting stuck or whatever behind the background I just filled it with foam so nothing could get behind it. Any algae or bacteria that develops in small air pockets won't be able to interface with the water in the tank enough to toss the levels off.
In hindsight I probably could of laid the pvc first and then just foamed around it (thus hiding it), but that would put a lot of pressure on the PVC and could have other effects (such as generating an air pocket for water to get into). It might have looked cool but more elements means more points of failure. I didn't want to go down that road with this portion of the project.
Hopefully that does a better job of explaining it.
Like the Sally mentioned above they came from a company called 
