Adhesive background question

[CookieJar]

I'm setting up my 180 and plan on putting a blue self-adhesive background on it. When i did the same thing for my 55 gal I couldn't get the background to stick on without having a lot of air bubbles in the background. Does using a mild soapy solution when applying the background prevent air bubbles? I only have 4" of space in between the tank and wall and want to make sure it doesn't look ugly after I put it on.
Also, is applying a sealant to the background perimeter a good idea to to prevent water from getting in between the background and glass?

[flfirefighter13]

My advice would be to find someone who does auto tint and get them to give you a hand. I had a buddy tint the back of a 125 for my friend and it came out awesome. We tinted 3 layers of limo to ensure it looked black, took maybe an hour and after it dried we ran a bead of silicone along the bottom of the tanks top trim to keep watre out. We didnt worry about the sides and he never had a problem for the 2 years he had the tank. Good luck

[cdentii1]

window tint Great Idea!!!!

[SirSmapty]

paint it.

[norcal99]

Window tinting sounds a bit extreme and expensive in my opinion... I'm sure it looks great though.

I just used a can of spray paint for acrylic surfaces and put a couple coats and voila, black background. It's clearly the most cost effective method but won't be as smooth as laying window tint (but who cares, right?)

[cdentii1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8305385#post8305385 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by norcal99
Window tinting sounds a bit extreme and expensive in my opinion... I'm sure it looks great though.

I just used a can of spray paint for acrylic surfaces and put a couple coats and voila, black background. It's clearly the most cost effective method but won't be as smooth as laying window tint (but who cares, right?)

how well would acrylic paint adhere to glass?