http://forum.aqua-fish.net/ A forum devoted to aquarium fish, plants, techniques and fish keeping as a whole. en http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=-faulty-product-warning-#1 Hi people I am new to this forum and as you all seem like a friendly bunch of people I would like to ask you a question. 6months ago I brought Juwel Aquarium Structured 3d Background 550x600mm for my new 7x2x2 ft aquarium. Well to cut a long story short within 3 weeks of the background being installed within my new aquarium the “Face” of the background begin to peel off revealing black underneath. Not only does it now look totally unnatural but the peelings have cause me serious issues with my aquarium filters and the health implications for my fish are also questionable. I am so concerned by this I now have no other choice but to break the entire aquarium down and remove the background and the sealant holding the background in place. Juwel aquarium have told me there have only been a “few” similar incidents to mine. I truly hope this is the case and im am just unlucky as it I would not wish this situation on any other hobbyist as it is a truly stressful situation. So my question to you all is have any of you had any experience with Juwel Structured 3d Backgrounds? or know of anyone who has? Thank you for your time and sorry for the long post also you can mail me on l.goodbody NOSPAM[at]NOSPAM btinternet NOSPAM[dot]NOSPAM com - latest edit by admin; email address made spam-free; replace ' NOSPAM[at]NOSPAM ' with "@" and ' NOSPAM[dot]NOSPAM ' with "."; moved to another parent topic. original post: April 3, 2007, 11:42 am cloachlover 2008-05-02 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=-faulty-product-warning-#2 Hello cloachlover, I know people who use this kind of background and no-one went through problems which could be compared to yours. Since I had backgrounds in my tanks too, I can recommend you removing them anyway. Advantages of backgrounds (plastic, paper): 1) They usually look nice, 2) No other advantage. Disadvantages: 1) They require cleaning. I mean cleaning from all sides (top, bottom, front, back). Especially if you clean back parts of any background, you’ll need to stop your tank and to put it out in order to clean it as best as possible, 2) Backgrounds support various forms of algae. This includes brown algae the most. 3) It makes finding dead fish more difficult. I removed backgrounds from my tank 1 year ago and I let my plants to grow at back stages primarily. It looks terrific. The whole background is now green and tanks are easy-to-maintain. jan 2008-05-02 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=-faulty-product-warning-#3 I had some kind of 3D background but I decided to replace it with rocks. Yeah, I went to mountains with back-pack and have taken about 15 kgs of rocksSmile. I can tell you it looks pretty well and it can’t be compared to any background available in shops. I recommend you to do what I did, because it will help your fish too. Rocks shouldn’t contain too much minerals. Just spill some vinegar on them and if it won’t bubble, it’s calcium-safe for tank usage. Rocks are welcomed by small fish; They can hide easily. Don’t forget to use heavy aquarium stand otherwise it could break the whole tank. Don’t prop rocks to glass. Gage anonymous 2008-05-02