froggiegal

I just found out BY ACCIDENT that you need to wet the back of fish tank backgrounds in order for them to "pop" in your tank!

I bought a pretty background and couldn't figure why it wasn't showing through the tank. My husband just looked at the tank and mentioned how realistic a section of it looked, while the other part you couldn't see the background.

Lol and behold, I wet the background and Voila! You can see the background...YAHOOOOO.

Did everyone else know that but not me?

Lucy

Don't ya love discovering new things?

Tavel

i always leave it dry, I think the darkened background is less distracting...that's just me though.

clinton1621

The only problem with that is it will leave watermarks on the glass when the water evaporates... or it will grow nasty mold and algae in between the glass and the background. I accidentaly spilled a little water between there once and it grew algae, then the algae died and started to mold

Slug

Or it will leave a blotchy airbubbled texture to it. I always tape mine. Gonna paint a few tanks though.

Tavel

paint...now that shows commitment!

froggiegal

Thank you for the heads up on the possibility of mold. I'll have to schedule quarterly maintenance cleanup on the back of the tank.

I can't paint! That's a whole new area - special paints? inside / outside...

Lucy

I use colored poster board on the backs of 2 of my tanks. Very inexpensive, and I can switch anytime I want.

Laelanna

I made a spongebob background for my betta I had once. Man did he hate that thing. He would look at spongebob and just puff up ready to attack.

Lucy

Good try, though!

Allie

Try this stuff, it works well.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...0&pcatid=18280

mrsmuffin

I have heard of using vegitable oil between the glass and the background, but I haven't tried it myself. I just painted the back of my new 65 gallon. Just regular latex paint - on the OUTSIDE of the tank, of course!

Ghostfish

Oops. That was me posting and not the wife. I don't want to falsely set her up as a Spongebob fan because she can't stand him.

Slug

I plan on using Krylon Indoor/Outdoor spray paint. On the outside of the tank.

fins

there is a tube of stuff dont know the name you can apply it to the background and it gives a good effect.......i used petroluem jelly over the back of my tank then applied the background it really does show up alot better

froggiegal

Thank you Fin - Allie sent me the link to the product that I think you were thinking about.

fins

oh yea i did see that afterwards oh well shows great minds think alike lol