Tank Background?

When I bought my tank, I had purchased a plain black one side blue on the other background to tape to the back of my tank. The guy at the LFS told me to put it on before I setup the tank. Low and behold, I forgot I bought it and didn't tape it on.

Here is my question...

I am in the middle of my cycle and my Marineland 350 is latched on to the back of the tank. I and not sure if I should just wait out the cycle, or stop the 350 for a few minutes and tape the background on?

Thanks for the guidance!

Respectfully,

Kake Tank

BTW: Today's reading were:
Grav: 1.024
Kh: 11
Ph: 8.4
Trates: 0
Trites: 2.0
Ammonia: 0.5

Almost there!

 

an easy trick to get it to stick is to cover the entire background with a thin layer of mineral oil and then stick it to the back wall of the tank. It won't come off and you can reposition it however you want. Plus you wont get any salt creep back there and it will not harm your aquarium. It works like a charm

 

I don't see any problem in turning off the equipment for a few minutes to put the backing on..

 

@ bama: Thanks for the tip. Now if I just had some mineral oil. Wal-Mart here I come.
@ Seano: Preciate Ya!

 

its easier if you have 2 people, just feed the paper between rear glass and all your powercords,etc.. have tape already cut so you and your friend can get the top attached first. then the side and finally the bottom.

 

@ Night-Rida: Crazy you say that. My wife is out of town and last night I tried to do it by myself. I said to myself that I wish wifey was here to help. She'll be out of town until Monday, so I guess I'll have to wait.

 

I don't think you will be able to apply the background properly without emptying the tank, rotating it to the back is facing you, and applying it properly using mineral oil. You will need to push any bubbles out from between the backing and glass. If you don't, you will have ugly bubbles that the wifey probably won't be happy with.

 

As for those bubbles, you can use an old credit card to scrape across the background, from one direction to the other. Don't go backwards or this will create more bubbles.

 

well i did both of my 55g tanks myself. its just a pain. I would slide the paper background into place and tape one top corner and try to get the other corner taped up without having the other corner falling down. if you cant do it, just wait til tomorrow.

 

I'm just curious, by this post I am getting the idea that a back ground is vital. I currently don't have one. It it on my list of things to get, but I didn't think for a minute that a fake back ground is a critical issue. I currently don't have anything in my tank except a few pounds of live rock and sand. Is a back ground really that critical? Now I'm a bit concerned that I may need to start over.