Making a cover

Maggie321 · Feb 24, 2018

I am a failure for my wrasse. Everyone said wrasses are jumpers. I was sure mine would stay in the tank. I was wrong. Twinkle Tail (a blue streaked cleaner wrasse) went kitchen floor surfing the other day and I just found him last night. I convinced myself he was hiding in a rock. I was wrong. Enough beating myself up. I am going to learn from this.

I have a uniquely shaped bowfront that the arch is deeper on than most common bowfronts. I have to make my own cover since I failed to do so before losing beloved fish. My plan is to make a rectangle screen for the part that is not on the bow and cut a piece of acrylic sheet for the bow and another piece to fit in all the nooks and crannies around the hob skimmer pipes and cords for the equipment in the back.

Does anyone have a better solution or any thing at all to improve on this idea?

I only have a small mimic tang (Ting Tang) and a tangaroa goby (OB1Goby) as far as fish goes in the tank now. Hoping Ting doesn't get bored and decide to follow his buddy to the kitchen floor while I make this.

Mal11224 · Feb 24, 2018

Sorry about your wrasse. I've been there. I have 4 now but put a rock solid lid over my tank. Nice names for your fish. Hopefully your lid comes out good. It seems inevitable that a wrasse will try to jump out of the tank.

Tahoe61 · Feb 24, 2018

Have you thought about Octo Aquatics?

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/octo-aquatics.933/

He does some nice custom stuff.

Susan Edwards · Feb 24, 2018

in the meantime, you could use egg crate. I did my own lid for a hex 20 gal qt tank. With zip ties, you can put together something pretty quickly and it's easy to snip and fit. Not the best looking solution but would work until you get something better

cracker · Feb 24, 2018

Don't feel too bad Miss Maggie I also lost a nice wrasse the same way. I like your idea . You could attach acrylic part to the screen part & use zip ties as hinges maybe.

Fin · Feb 24, 2018

If you put a piece of regular plexiglas on top of the tank, there is a good chance that it will absorb moisture and bow in a short amount of time. Maybe consider a combination of your idea and Susan's. Make the rectangular screen top as large as you can and cut the curved part out of eggcrate. Be aware that smaller fish can get through the holes in eggcrate. But you can cover the bottom of the eggcrate with screen. I did something similar on my tank, since I had over the top returns at the front and back. I also made the top in 2 pieces, so it would be easier to lift off. I also painted the screen frame black to match the eggcrate. This is how it came out.

This is the "Gutter Guard" that I got from Lowe's to go under the eggcrate to keep my wrasses in. Plus, I used a lot of small black zip ties (also from Lowes).

saltyfilmfolks · Feb 24, 2018

I’m using a (I think lol) 3/8 acrylic on both of my tanks. It doesn’t sag. On both tanks I cut a two piece , a large front and then back.
My 55 has a brace , to the lid is four pieces total.
The 55 is sumped so I only had to cut out a few spots in the back for overs flow and wires.
The 30 is non sumped with a tunze comline skimmer and hOB Refugium so the cut out was also minimal.

The plan with summer coming (cooling fans ) is to remove material in the center of each acrylic and add BRS netting. The prototype don’t sag but I did leave enough material to to keep it rigid, similar to Mats designs at Octo...

Maggie321 · Feb 24, 2018

I like all these ideas!
Someone did send me a link to an acrylic piano hinge that is 24" long which is practically perfect and it's only $2. I think I will get a couple of those to incorporate into the top. I worry most about condensation and blocking the light. I think I'll have enough of it open that it will hopefully have good enough airflow to stop some of that.