Thread: FCG help needed!!

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At the risk of looking like the biggest idiot on here I need to ask about something. I am trying to make 2 FCG's and I just soaked my cheese cloth in the blueing agent and ran it thought the wash. Well, it doesnt glow under the black light AT ALL!!!! Everything else in my room seems to. Flecks of stuff on my hands, a piece of paper on the floor, a t-shirt laying on a chair, they glow like crazy but the stupid cheese cloth is dull and blue looking. What on earth did I do wrong here? Any help here will be much appreciated.
Thanks, audible

Don't wash it. Just soak it in the Rit whitener, squeeze it out, and let it air-dry. It'll glow like crazy. You're not using one of those incandescent "black light" bulbs, right?

I just soaked mine in a bucket of water and a pretty good amount of Tide laundry detergent. After I removed them I tossed them in the dryer......glows nice!

I am using an ultraviolet bulb so I would think it would work ok. I used a blueing agent I found at Wally world. I put the cheese cloth in a bucket of water with a pretty descent amount of the blueing agent and let it soak for a couple hours. Mostly because I forgot it was in there. The cloth is now a light blue color and doesnt seem to glow at all. I checked to see if it would glow before I washed it and it didnt thats why I threw it in the washer. I think im going to start over with new cheese cloth and try the tide method.
thanks everyone. audible.

If it's an incandescent bulb type of "black light", it's not going to work, ever. You need to use a fluorescent tube UV light to get the cloth to glow. The bulbs put out a lot of purple light, but very little if any UV.

Well, the bulb im using seemed to make everything else in the room glow like crazy "except" the cheese cloth so I would think it wasnt the black light bulb.

I just mixed half and half of liquid tide and water in a spritzer bottle and sprayed my ghost with it. Then I just let it air dry. Glows really good now.

It's very possible that the cheesecloth you are using is not 100% cotton. I know Ace sells both the cotton and a man made (polyester?) cloth that will not take the bluing. Make sure that the cheesecloth is indeed all cotton and I'll bet it lights up like crazy. If your black light is lighting up everything else, it has to be the type of cloth your using. These are just my opinions so without actually seeing and touching the cloth I can't be absolutely sure. Let us know what you find out.

I think if you soke ot in laundry det.......let it dry out side and use an 18" floresant blacklight like Otaka said you will be fine.........I have a reef aquarium with access to the back and when the blue actinic bulbs only are on everything glows but it wont make cloth glow..alot of things have floresant stuff in them already .price tags,some white boxes,.ect

I agree with others. The incandescent "black light" (if that is what you have) will not work. It really is just a very low power bulb. You need to buy a fluorescent tube light from Wal Mart. I use a 15" one and it is fantastic. I actually have two of them!

They only run about $12-15.

As well, try some Rit whitener and let teh cheesecloth soak in it. After about 15 minutes, take it out and hand wring the water out. Throw it in the dryer on delicate setting and everything should work fine.

Every year I touch up mine with a small spray bottle of Rit and water. Works great!