# Blue Life Background



## vjl110 (Feb 25, 2004)

I just ordered one of those wet and paste backgrounds. The old taped ones 
never quite look good. Has anyone used this brand or something like it before?
Never had one of these. I'm a little uneasy about trying this, can it ruin my tank?
Any help and advice would be great. Thanks.


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## Steve St.Laurent (Oct 2, 2008)

I have one on my 90 gallon tank and it looks great. I went with black. Shouldn't be any way for it to ruin your tank. I applied mine just like I've applied tint to car windows in the past and it worked great. Make the soapy water solution they suggest. It'll be much easier if you can lay your aquarium on it's face so that the surface your putting the background on is horizontal. Then clean, clean, clean, clean your glass and then clean it again!!!!! You don't want any dirt, hair, etc under your background. Cut the background a little bigger than your aquarium - you can trim it after it's on. I suggest having a helper depending on the size of your aquarium - once you pull the backing off the background that surface is sticky and you DON'T want to stick it to itself or any dirt, etc! Spray the glass down with the soapy solution and then remove the backing off the background and spray down the sticky side of the background with your soapy solution. Now set the background on your aquarium (sticky side towards the glass). Then spray down the back side of your background with the soapy solution as well. Use a squegee or a credit card and start in the middle and push all of the water/soap out with it pushing it towards the edges. Having a hair dryer can help greatly towards the edges because you'll find that a small amount of moisture will cause a run going into the background. When that happens use the hair dryer to heat the background where the run is (your trying to evaporate off the moisture between the background and glass) and then push the run out from the middle to the edge with your squegee/credit card. You may have to do this multiple times on the runs - do it when the run is as small as possible. You'll find that this will happen more commonly in spots where there are any creases in the background. Once you have it down pretty good then use a razer blade to trim the excess background off. Then finish working on the runs. Let it sit for a while before you stand the tank back up to make sure you have all the runs out of it.


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## Morpheus (Nov 12, 2008)

Those are probably better instructions than will come with the background, :lol:


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## vjl110 (Feb 25, 2004)

Thanks for your help.

My tank is already set-up and I wanted to change the background. Is this a problem? 
Fortunately, I think there is plenty of room behind the tank.

Also, is it easy to remove?


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## Steve St.Laurent (Oct 2, 2008)

It'll definitely be harder to do with an already setup tank. I haven't tried removing mine but if it's anything like tint it isn't the easiest thing in the world to remove. There is actually a glue that is gluing it to your glass so you'll have to peel it off and then remove the residue. If I was planning on removing it I'd probably go a different route.


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## vjl110 (Feb 25, 2004)

Thanks for all your help.

I got about 10 inches between the wall and the tank. I think I'll get a friend to help me.
Also, I'll use a towel instead of the spray to wet the back of the tank. This way
no soap will get in the water. I don't think I'll remove it, but I'm just concerned if 
it doesn't come out right then I got a problem. I guess I can always just tape the thing to 
the tank which is the easy route.


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## Steve St.Laurent (Oct 2, 2008)

I wouldn't use a towel - your virtually guaranteed to have fuzz on the glass that way. If your worried about getting soap into the tank I would tape some kind of barrier to the top rim of the tank like saran wrap or plastic drop cloth, etc. If anything like fuzz, hair, dust, etc gets between the background and the glass you will see it and you'll get air entrained around it. It needs to be completely clean. 10 inches is pretty tight depending on the width and height of your tank. I'd suggest having a 3rd set of hands around given your space constraints that way you can have someone else there to help while the two of you are handling the background once the backing is taken off.


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## vjl110 (Feb 25, 2004)

Thanks,

I have a 30 gallon long. It's 36 inches long. I bought the 36 by 25 background.


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## Steve St.Laurent (Oct 2, 2008)

Good luck with it. Let us know how it goes.


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