Tips for applying background

[Sammie7]

I don't know if PAM would work, because I've never tried it. You could experiment with it. I have only tried with vegetable oil. You could try using baby oil or something like that. Do you not have vegetable oil available?

Seriously though, having something like oil between the background and glass really enhances the background. I first noticed this when i was changing water at my cousins house on his 10 gallon tank. He had one of the usual plastic store bought backgrounds with the pictures on them. When some of the water got on the background, the background seemed to fuse with the glass and the picture became bright and lively. In the places where there was no water, the background was dull and hardly any light was hitting it. You could hardly see the background when there wasn't any water on it.

The oil acts like the water did, but it doesn't dry up as fast as the water does. Try it with water and see what i mean.

 

[fballguy]

Any type of cooking oil will stick it on good but not too good, and being attched directly to the glass, the background will shouw up better than it would if it were just taped on.

 

[J double R]

I use oil between the background and the glass. This way you can actually see the background clearly, water won't get trapped behind it, you can still remove it when you need a change, and it just looks better in general. Especially if you have an actual picture on the background. I just squeegee out the extra oil with an old library card. Oh, and no it doesn't smell like oil afterwards.

i would be scared of contaminating my tank.. but it sounds like a viable idea if it can be pulled off without contamination.

 

[Sammie7]

And how would you contaminate the tank? I didn't say to pour it in the tank. :dance2: I think with a little caution you should be just fine. I've done two tanks like this and both tanks twice, since I decided to change the background. They are both fine and have been for months, probably a year now.

 

[J double R]

well thats cool then. :

 

[aardvark1]

Tried out the cooking spray I had. Took background off thank, removed tape, and sprayed it down. Couple swipes with my NRA membership card and the few air bubbles went away.

Have tried using water before, had so-so results.

We'll see how this works!

 

[aardvark1]

OOPS!

Looking at the pic, I see I have a few more air bubbles to chase....

 

[Sammie7]

Make sure you have plenty oil on there or you're gonna have a harder time getting out bubbles. You should have taken a "before" pic, so we could compare them. Do you have any older pics? Nice tank by the way.

 

[aardvark1]

Best I can do with a before (just put this background on about a month ago)

Flash used in this pic, just the tank lights in the other.

 

[kb46]

I'm do glad someone else asked this question (I was too chicken ). Mine too has a little water trapped which making it look patchy.

The oil is a great tip. Shall give it a try tonight!