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Background application

Lucille

Lucille

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I have acrylic caging that I made and I am going to put decorative backings on the cages, the kind of backing made for aquariums. I found a nice pattern that is mostly rocks and it looks pretty sharp.

When I had aquariums, sometimes I used tape, which would come off. Then someone told me that Vaseline would make the plastic backgrounds stick, I tried that once and it did OK but some of the corners still curled up and it was actually an icky mess when I went to pull off the background one time and clean the tank.

Anyone got good ideas on how to stick this stuff on real good? It will arrive in a couple days and I am looking forward to the cages having backings on them.
 
I've probably put backgrounds on well over 100 aquariums. At the pet store where I used to work, a lot of customers would ask me to do it before they took the tank home. I haven't put one on an acrylic tank before, but I would imagine that it would be pretty similar.

First of all, Vaseline is absolutely disgusting. lol You're right, it makes a huge mess, and doesn't necessarily hold too well. Besides that, I hate the smell. It reminds me of my grandma. Anyway, here's the method I developed, and have used for quite a few years now. It's nothing amazing or brilliant, it just works the best out of all the ways I've tried.

Make sure the surface you're applying it to is REALLY clean. I prefer rubbing alcohol and a low-lint cloth (not paper towel.) Glass cleaner would work too, but tends to streak more. Now, get yerself some double sided tape. Just the normal stuff from Walgreens or whatever will do. Apply a single, consistent line of the tape to the edge of whatever you want the background on. You will want the edge of the tape to be flush with the edge of the tank, window, etc. Do this along all four sides.

Don't pre-cut the background. It's too hard to get it square, and it probably won't line up. Just start with an over-sized piece. I'd start with the top edge, and press the background against the tape, avoiding wrinkles. After you get the top edge on there, start from the middle of the bottom edge and work your way out to the sides. If it starts to get wrinkled, just peel it back, smooth it out and try again. The tape should stay on the tank, and I've never had it rip the background.

Once you get it on there without any wrinkles, you should have some excess overlapping the sides and bottoms. I just use a new single edge razor blade, run it along the side of the tank (from the back) to cut off the excess. It leaves a perfect edge, and with the tape being on there, every inch of the edges is secure.

I know that works really well for aquariums, but I'm not quite sure how well it would translate to your cage. I've used the same method though to put that translucent contact paper on house windows, and it worked just fine.

Good luck, and I'm sorry if this doesn't make a lot of sense. It's definitely one of those things that's easier to show someone than to try to type it!
 
Thank you, it sounds easy and effective, I will try it this way.
 
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