SCREEN TOP ADVISE

[mikes reef]

Hey guys any one know how to make or who sells a mesh top that can compensate for two light clamps I’ve made a diy top from Home Depot but it looks very janky it works don’t get me wrong but aesthetically looks horrible also anyone used regular window screen roll instead of the ones brs and Red Sea sell rolls ?

 

[SpyC]

Nope, I think one ofnthe reasons people don't use it is due to poor light transmission through it.

 

[JNalley]

So, you can go a few different routes, one of which you've already tried, making your own from Hardware store parts. But, using regular window screen is going to reduce your PAR from your lights immensely (even the clear 1/4" stuff that RedSea and others use reduce par by as much as 10-15%, with black/grey window screen, you're probably looking at a 40-50% reduction or more).

You can do one of the DIY kits, which sell extra parts for light mount cutouts, but there's no reason to believe that you will have any better luck cutting these than you did your own from the hardware store.

Lastly you can have someone make you some custom acrylic/polycarbonate + Screen tops.

TopLids - Expensive, takes forever, and their customer service has been lacking as of late according to a few forum conversations currently going on

Clearview Lids - still a relatively long lead time, and they use a really thick piece of polycarb or acrylic, but they come in slightly cheaper, and have more options than TopLids, and they can make their screentops longer than 24" without having to split into two tops, this is who my top is currently made by.

KrakenReef - The cheapest of the bunch, aesthetically not as cool as the other two, but definitely function well, use a thinner, and therefore lighter weight polycarbonate than the other two, but anything over 24" has to be cut into multiple pieces (So a 36" tank will be 2 18" pieces rather than 1 single piece).

If I was making the choice today, knowing what I know now, I would choose Kraken personally... I had one on my Flex, and it was nice, but I felt I wanted to try a different company on this tank, so I went with ClearView and I kind of regret it...

 

[VintageReefer]

So, you can go a few different routes, one of which you've already tried, making your own from Hardware store parts. But, using regular window screen is going to reduce your PAR from your lights immensely (even the clear 1/4" stuff that RedSea and others use reduce par by as much as 10-15%, with black/grey window screen, you're probably looking at a 40-50% reduction or more).

You can do one of the DIY kits, which sell extra parts for light mount cutouts, but there's no reason to believe that you will have any better luck cutting these than you did your own from the hardware store.

Lastly you can have someone make you some custom acrylic/polycarbonate + Screen tops.

TopLids - Expensive, takes forever, and their customer service has been lacking as of late according to a few forum conversations currently going on

Clearview Lids - still a relatively long lead time, and they use a really thick piece of polycarb or acrylic, but they come in slightly cheaper, and have more options than TopLids, and they can make their screentops longer than 24" without having to split into two tops, this is who my top is currently made by.

KrakenReef - The cheapest of the bunch, aesthetically not as cool as the other two, but definitely function well, use a thinner, and therefore lighter weight polycarbonate than the other two, but anything over 24" has to be cut into multiple pieces (So a 36" tank will be 2 18" pieces rather than 1 single piece).

If I was making the choice today, knowing what I know now, I would choose Kraken personally... I had one on my Flex, and it was nice, but I felt I wanted to try a different company on this tank, so I went with ClearView and I kind of regret it...

We now have a 4th player in the game

Best Aquarium Lids, Crystal Clear and Durable

Elevate your aquarium experience with the best lids on the market. Our precision-crafted aquarium lids offer crystal-clear visibility and exceptional durability, ensuring your underwater world remains pristine for years to come. Explore our range today for unmatched clarity and longevity!

walterlids.com

I took a gamble when he was an Etsy shop and he made perfect custom lids to my measurements and design for my 75g. I got both lids for about 85-90 shipped

You don’t need to spend a fortune for a custom lid - this is made of polycarbonate

He can do lids up to 33” in one piece. Larger lids would be two sections / lids and he can do this also

 

[Biokabe]

Depends on your budget.

Red Sea makes a DIY kit that has various brackets and corners that you can use to build a shape around your light brackets. You can also just buy the brackets and corners and buy framing from a home center to save a little money.

You can use the cheaper steel mesh screening material as well, but there is some corrosion to think about, it's a much stiffer material (so harder to work with), and it blocks a pretty significant amount of light. I personally don't think the cost savings justify the drawbacks.

I know the cost of an acrylic lid can seem daunting, but they are definitely worth it in my opinion.

I've used four different types of lids on my tanks - three different style of mesh-top, plus solid polycarbonate. And really, this is one of those areas where you basically get what you pay for.

A true DIY mesh top was the cheapest style of lid I ever did, and by far the worst in terms of aesthetics and performance. The cuts were a pain to make, it never fit right, and taking it on and off the tank always seemed like an exercise in frustration - so much flex that I almost always ended up dipping some part of it into the water.

The next step up was the solid polycarbonate lid. I made the initial mistake of building this type of lid out of acrylic (don't do it), but even once I used the right material it still left something to be desired. Cutting them to the right size was definitely the most irritating part; you can have sheets cut to size at a plastics shop, but you need to do very precise measurements, and if you're wrong then you've basically just flushed money down the toilet. You can cut them yourself with the right equipment (router table with a plastic-cutting bit, or table saw with a plastic-cutting blade), but you'll never get the clean lines that the shops can get. On top of that, I think at least one fish killed itself by jumping into the lid. Great, it didn't go carpet surfing, but did the lid really do its job if the fish died of blunt force trauma instead of asphyxiation? Polycarbonate is also not cheap, so unless you have a smaller tank, a solid polycarbonate lid will get expensive pretty fast.

The Red Sea DIY kit was better, but still left something to desire. The biggest problem, of course, was that I was still the one cutting the framing out, and I am not great at cutting metal. With sufficient tools you can probably make this one look a little nicer, but if you're relying on a hack saw and measuring tape, it's still going to look a little janky.

At the top end of price and performance are the polycarbonate/mesh lids, the three major makers are TopLids, Clearview and Kraken. I can only speak to Clearview, but I've been very satisfied with mine and consider it some of the best money I've ever spent on my tank. The lids are cut nicely, they're sized so that they can rest within the tank (instead of floating on top of the rim), and they have a large number of different profile and such for light mounts, auto-feeder mounts, feeding doors, and more. I'm sure the other makers have similar options. You can also pay a bit more to have a modular lid, so if you ever need to mount a new piece of equipment to the tank you don't need to replace the entire lid - I've done this myself and it was relatively easy.

So ultimately it comes down to what you want to spend. I know the mesh lids are expensive, but they are worth it.

 

[JNalley]

We now have a 4th player in the game

Best Aquarium Lids, Crystal Clear and Durable

Elevate your aquarium experience with the best lids on the market. Our precision-crafted aquarium lids offer crystal-clear visibility and exceptional durability, ensuring your underwater world remains pristine for years to come. Explore our range today for unmatched clarity and longevity!

walterlids.com

I took a gamble when he was an Etsy shop and he made perfect custom lids to my measurements and design for my 75g. I got both lids for about 85-90 shipped

You don’t need to spend a fortune for a custom lid - this is made of polycarbonate

He can do lids up to 33” in one piece. Larger lids would be two sections / lids and he can do this also

I'm glad you like them. After seeing yours though, I'm not a fan. But it's mainly because it's basically a vented glass top made of polycarbonate instead of a screen top. It looks like great craftsmanship, but I just prefer a screen (Heat/Evap, PAR, and UV being the top reasons). It's definitely an option for some others though, so thanks for sharing

 

[smitten with ocean life]

We now have a 4th player in the game

Best Aquarium Lids, Crystal Clear and Durable

Elevate your aquarium experience with the best lids on the market. Our precision-crafted aquarium lids offer crystal-clear visibility and exceptional durability, ensuring your underwater world remains pristine for years to come. Explore our range today for unmatched clarity and longevity!

walterlids.com

I took a gamble when he was an Etsy shop and he made perfect custom lids to my measurements and design for my 75g. I got both lids for about 85-90 shipped

You don’t need to spend a fortune for a custom lid - this is made of polycarbonate

He can do lids up to 33” in one piece. Larger lids would be two sections / lids and he can do this also

so im curious. i have glass lids and was recommended to take them off for various reasons. how are these better? i know they probably let the light through better than glass. but otherwise?

 

[JNalley]

so im curious. i have glass lids and was recommended to take them off for various reasons. how are these better? i know they probably let the light through better than glass. but otherwise?

They're not any better or worse than glass, other than he has some pieces that are vented to allow for some evaporation and gas exchange, which is unlikely to be present on a glass lid. But overall, they have very similar drawbacks.

Both will reduce light transmission (the difference between them is probably negligible 5% or so)
Both will trap heat by preventing evaporation
Both will limit gas exchange which could reduce oxygenation (probably not a huge concern honestly)
Both will need to be cleaned/wiped down regularly to remove the haze and increase light transmission

So there are very minor differences...

 

[SpyC]

so im curious. i have glass lids and was recommended to take them off for various reasons. how are these better? i know they probably let the light through better than glass. but otherwise?

They both block and both will have poor gas exchange. This at least has some holes to help, but still isn't ideal or optimum. You will also enjoy a lot of condensation on it. For a super budget and a small tank, this is probably good enough.

 

[VintageReefer]

I have a kraken mesh lid and don’t like it. Don’t get me wrong, quality is good but it was pricey and the evaporation compared to all my glass lid tanks is insane. And I already have a ato with 2.5g tank.

Plus, I like using my lid to hold tools and food and stuff while I work, and the kraken mesh feels like fishing line and I wouldn’t trust it to hold anything over a few ounces

This lid is the best of both worlds for me, it significantly reduced evap. And I have some vents in the back for airflow and to put wet stuff in to drain back into the tank

Plus, solid tops retain heat more, making the water more stable and my heater run less often.

 

[VintageReefer]

I’ve been running solid glass lids on all my tanks for 20+ years. Prove to me any effect of “reduced gas exchange”
If you have a skimmer, or a overflow dumping into a sump, your gas exchange is fine.

Traps heat? Retains heat. Most of us are not keeping our houses at 77-78 degrees so the ambient is always trying to cool the tank. This isn’t halide days where the lights are cooking the tank. Many people are using LED which has no effect on tank water temp. If using halide, I wouldn’t recommend a polycarbonate lid to be used.

Solid lids in most situations lead to a more stable tank for salinity and temp.

Also, I have a par meter, the effect of the lid + the condensation was 5-6%. Easily compensate by bumping led channels up a tiny bit.

Solid lids also prevent / reduce contaminants like dust, dander, hair, and cleaning produces from entering the ecosystem

 

[smitten with ocean life]

ok. interesting!

 

[SpyC]

I’ve been running solid glass lids on all my tanks for 20+ years. Prove to me any effect of “reduced gas exchange”
If you have a skimmer, or a overflow dumping into a sump, your gas exchange is fine.

Traps heat? Retains heat. Most of us are not keeping our houses at 77-78 degrees so the ambient is always trying to cool the tank. This isn’t halide days where the lights are cooking the tank. Many people are using LED which has no effect on tank water temp. If using halide, I wouldn’t recommend a polycarbonate lid to be used.

Solid lids in most situations lead to a more stable tank for salinity and temp.

Also, I have a par meter, the effect of the lid + the condensation was 5-6%. Easily compensate by bumping led channels up a tiny bit.

Solid lids also prevent / reduce contaminants like dust, dander, hair, and cleaning produces from entering the ecosystem

If you have an apex, run the tank for 72 hours without the lid and share the ph graph for 144 hours. With many people moving to using gate valves to create a siphon, you aren't getting much gas exchange. Not everyone runs a skimmer or a quality skimmer.

 

[VintageReefer]

I just read a thread the other day and a guys wife tried to clean the light shade on his light fixture with soap and some dripped in and it killed his entire tank of fish and half his sps. Solid lids prevent accidents like this

Tank size decision

Hey guys. I’m currently running a 6x2.5x2.5 feet sps dominated tank. Few days ago my wife decided it was a good idea to help clean my light covers with soap and the soap fell in to the tank and killed all my fishes + half my sps corals. Rather than restock, I’ve decided to take the opportunity...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[VintageReefer]

If you have an apex, run the tank for 72 hours without the lid and share the ph graph for 144 hours. With many people moving to using gate valves to create a siphon, you aren't getting much gas exchange. Not everyone runs a skimmer or a quality skimmer.

I haven’t run a skimmer for the past 1.5 years. Ph 8.2
Never bothered with worrying about ph in 24 years of keeping reefs in multiple houses / states. Only reason I know my current ph is because I bought some fish and one died after acclimation and the vendor wanted to know my PH so I had to get a test kit to find out what it was

 

[JNalley]

I’ve been running solid glass lids on all my tanks for 20+ years. Prove to me any effect of “reduced gas exchange”
If you have a skimmer, or a overflow dumping into a sump, your gas exchange is fine.

Skimmer agreed, which is why I said it probably wasn't that big of a deal) overflow dumping into a sump, disagree, there's very little gas exchange when the water is entering the sump 8" below the water line as most new sumps are designed to do...

Traps heat? Retains heat. Most of us are not keeping our houses at 77-78 degrees so the ambient is always trying to cool the tank. This isn’t halide days where the lights are cooking the tank. Many people are using LED which has no effect on tank water temp. If using halide, I wouldn’t recommend a polycarbonate lid to be used.

Traps vs. Retains is a semantic argument, so let's not go there. My house is pegged at 75, and my tank runs at 3 degrees over ambient, so if I unplugged my heaters (which I've done), my tank remains stable at 78. I tend to prefer running my tank up to 81 though, so my heaters do actually work/run. However, with a solid top my tank was pushing 85-90 degrees, which would have caused the need for a chiller... Heck, my mixing barrel gets up to 93 while it's mixing salt with the lid on...

Solid lids in most situations lead to a more stable tank for salinity and temp.

Maybe... when you consider that outside of the US air conditioning is actually a luxury I think it paints a different picture...

Solid lids also prevent / reduce contaminants like dust, dander, hair, and cleaning produces from entering the ecosystem

this is why most tanks are designed to surface skim and take in the water from the surface first. This takes care of the dust, dander and hair... As far as cleaning products goes, aerosolized cleaning products shouldn't be used around a tank, even one with glass lids...

But hey man, to each their own... different strokes for different folks... That's the best part of this hobby, so much variety that it caters to just about everyone's specific sets of circumstances

 

[VintageReefer]

I enjoyed this discussion and I feel we both brought up valid points. I just wanted to share some other perspective for readers since we are both opinionated. This way current and future readers of the thread can see both sides






S0liD_Rul3z

 

[JNalley]

I enjoyed this discussion and I feel we both brought up valid points. I just wanted to share some other perspective for readers since we are both opinionated. This way current and future readers of the thread can see both sides






S0liD_Rul3z

haha yeh, we're still homies, I enjoyed the debate too, and I agree, both sides of any argument should be well represented

 

[mikes reef]

Thank you all for the information and responses I truly appreciate it with all said I’m gonna pull up every option on my computer compare pros and cons and budget in the equation and make a choice

 

[Kraken Reef]

KrakenReef - The cheapest of the bunch, aesthetically not as cool as the other two, but definitely function well, use a thinner, and therefore lighter weight polycarbonate than the other two, but anything over 24" has to be cut into multiple pieces (So a 36" tank will be 2 18" pieces rather than 1 single piece).

Some updates to the info here with changes that have been made over the last year. We now use 3/8" polycarbonate, which is thicker than what Top Lids uses (I believe they use 8mm or something slightly thinner than 3/8") and most likely Clearview uses 3/8" as well. We also build lids up to 38" wide in a single piece (yes some that size and under are offered as a two piece, but that is due to customer preference).