In the hopes that fish will soon be on the horizon, I needed to get a screen top built for the tank.
With my OCD in high gear, I wanted to have the screen top not take away from the clean lines of the Fluval tank.
Being that the tank is rimless, I've been researching different ways to make a screen top work. There are clips available that allow the screen top to fit inside the glass. Perfect, but that raises another issue.
The mounting brackets for the Maxspect LED fixture overhang the glass by ¾" to the inside. That would mean I would have to move the light fixture every time I needed to remove the screen top. NOT perfect.
My solution was to machine a frame out of polycarbonate that would allow the light fixture to remain on the tank while the screen top could be removed.
The polycarbonate frame's outside dimensions matched the outside dimensions of the tank. The frame would be one inch wide to surpass the ¾" of the mounting bracket. And a ⅜" lip would be needed to hold the screen top.
Your skills are epic . Very nice build.
To minimize the reveal of the ⅜" thick polycarbonate frame, I ran a ¼" by ¼" rabbet on three of the sides.
This rabbet also locks the frame in place by sitting down inside the glass sides.
I also sanded the cut edges of the polycarbonate so that it mimics the frosted look on the glass tank. OCD details.
To build the screen top, I picked up a screen kit from the local hardware store; actually two kits. The first kit was just the natural aluminum fish, but after viewing it over the tank I decided to go with white instead.
I assembled the screen top just like any other; using ¼" mesh to keep in the smaller fish.
To make the screen top fit inside the rabbet of the polycarbonate frame, I needed to sand the corners round to fit the radius of the cutter.
The rabbet in the frame was machined to 5/16" deep so that the screen top would flush out with the frame when it was in place.
Here's a detail of the final project when mounted on the tank.
The polycarbonate frame has a reveal of ⅛ of an inch above the tank's glass. And the screen top has a good ¼" clearance of the light fixture's mounting brackets.
And here's a couple of shots with the screen top in place.
When I am sitting at my desk, the top of the tank is just about eye level So when I look at the tank, I do not even notice that a screen top has been installed.
The frame and screen top cover the entire display portion of the tank, so it still allows me access to the filtration portion.
As you can see from the last picture, the tank is cycling along nicely. DIATOMS!!!
I did fiddle with the one rock on top. With the aquascape before, you could see that it was three distinct pieces of rock. By just turning the one rock a bit, it now looks like there is just one large piece of rock.
Long view of aquascape. And diatoms.
Plenty of holes and tunnels for the gobies and blennies.
Detail of the Pukani rock structure.
I did add one hermit crab and one snail to the tank right away; both are doing well and cleaning the rock.
I have some zoanthids I plan on adding soon; maybe my Aussie Neon Torch coral also.
The tank needs some color!
