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DIY Lid


n8n

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Good Morning, this Memorial Day weekend I started on building a new lid for my 30x30 96g rimeless cube tank.   

 

A few requirements

  • Does not need "clips" (like the MarineLand glass top does) - I keep breaking clips -or- the clips need to be nearly indistructable
  • Needs to be semi-cat proof (i.e. cat can get on top of tank and not get in tank )
  • Needs to ventilate so tank doesn't overheat or have low o2.
  • Needs to prevent snails, wraiths, and other fishes from escaping
  • Needs to allow Apex Feeder to still function
  • Hopefully covers the return to keep critters from going in return.

 

Anyways I've made alot of progress this weekend, going to post some images of what I have so far on my DYI.

 

17870164360_aeccb71d3d_b.jpg

 

This is a piece of Acrylic from Home Depot (about 50 bucks) that I have cut down to fit the tank.  The Acrylic is covered in a plastic wrapper that peels off, so all the lines are temporary, plus it currently is alot more opaque then it will be in the end.  The there will be three access points (6" x 6") where I can reach in without taking the entire lid off.  The rest of the spots are (2" x 2")

 

17437325613_3fcf08f92c_b.jpg

 

Here is a prototype of the covering to the access points.  Its an 8x8 piece of acrylic with the original 6x6 piece under it that has been cut with the 2" pattern that matches the rest of the tank.  These pieces will be glued together when i'm done, in the pic i'm using zip ties to verify the fit.

 

18058733291_aa90906016_b.jpg

 

Although a little difficult to see, these are all the pieces cut out (upside down sorry) to glue on the bottom of the top. They are measured to fit inside the outer glass of the aquarium to prevent the lid from sliding in any direction.  Additionally there is a piece to fill in the top of the return and the lid to prevent any critters from getting in.

 

I'm in the process of gluing pieces and will post more pics when i'm done.  I'm also going to have a DYI screen over the top.

 

Thanks!

 

-Nathan 

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Do you think the light will penetrate it enough? That would be my only concern. Otherwise, awesome concept! 

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Very nice!

I too spent $$ trying to make one for my 93 cube out of thin glass (failed, break easily), then 1/4" acrylic (failed, warped). Acrylic sandwiched with glass (failed, silicone don't stick well to glass).

Now, I found a couple of the old aquarium glass lids, work well. The only down side is to remove multiple pieces of glass when cleaning.

 

Also, I have a 1/2" acrylic lid (20"x20") on my rodi reservoir. The lid also have a 1" acrylic support across the middle. However, lid is slightly warped from water moisture.

 

However, looking back at your design, you have lots of slots on it. This might actually work better as it might not retain as much moisture in it. Good luck. Let me know how it work out down the road.

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The acrylic is clear once I pull the plastic wrapper off it. The Ai hydra 52 is currently set to not exceed 40%. Even if it deflects some light I can always bump up the power on the light.

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I hope your cat will not actually get on it......Not sure what size cat you have but I would be worried with all of those cut lines in straight lines that is might be like perforations and allow it to crack following those lines. Looks like you are going to be cutting out two more holes for lights? Hope it works, or you are going to have a wet kitty......(I am waiting for Isaac's joke)

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So to elaborate more, this is actually my fourth lid (3rd acrylic) since i set my tank up 6 months ago.

 

I started rimless (which was totally cool but my wife kept wanting to add fish that had the potential of jumping out of the tank).... On Live Aquaria it straight out said they would lol.  Strong Willed I am....  So then she brought up our new years parties and the off-chance one of the drunk guests might get a little to "close" to my tank and i decided, I would do a lid but only for when we had parties......

 

So I bought the MarineLand Lid, it actually was sitting at quantum reefs, walked it bought it took it home.  Its almost like it was just waiting for me.  I didn't have to order it or anything even for this custom size.   After a few days I quickly discovered I would have some heat issues with a complete glass top and a poorly ventalated sump/stand....  And then i started to learn about Acrylic....

 

Acrylic Lid #1 ->

18129322545_ef6d32216a_b.jpg

 

This is basically a $50 dollars piece of acrylic from home depot, that I cut the center out of, made the lip for the overflow (that you can't really see).  What I discovered was the size of the acrylic was the exact same size as the glass.  The acrylic pic literally slid into the clips and the plastic hinge. I used the existing hardware that came with the orginal lid and everything was good.... for awhile ....

 

So.. what changed?  #1 the marine land clips that come with the glass lid are super fragile.  You can literally take the lid off and on a few times (the original glass one) and easily break one.  I started with 6 clips  ... Then 5 ... Then 4.....  When I got down to just 3 clips ................. Well time for a new lid LOL.

 

I'm sure i could have found a way to order some new clips but all i'd do is break them again.  

 

17941578720_43801ba709_b.jpg

 

Here is lid 2.0.  I still have the lid, in some of the pictures of the new lid you might see it hiding behind the tank.   This was a "rush job" when i broke clip #4 and was basically down to no lid.  I constructed this lid in a couple hours without alot of thought in mind.  The 1" border around the the lid is identical to the new design lid.  Works perfect to hold the lid on place.  The slits were not designed very well.  Initially i was thinking I could just cut little slits (literally just cut lines like 1/8" in size)... yeh that was no where near enough to prevent condensation.   I next (in a rush) just started cutting slits.   I didn't notice alot of bowing initially ...   So finially I did the big mistake, and I cut the 6" section across the front so it could be removed for easy access.  (there are bubble tips that wife hand feeds).    Anyways that large cut across the entire lid appears to be one of the main sources of instability in this lid.  Almost as soon as I did it the lid was no longer supported along the front.  I put some extra support pieces in but in the end, the area along the cut bowed inward and started touching the water.   The other thing that changed a few months ago we got some kittens who are being really quite good at jumping on things....  (the extra pipe on top is the return btw if anyone was curious) both overflow pipes are used as overflow for herbie design.  Loudest thing on the tank is 1) Vortec 2) skimmer.  No water noise at all.

 

Light wise,.. with both old setups no problem corals happy even at 40%  If you look along the center of the lid how clear the acrylic is the new top will be just as clear once I pull the plastic wrap off it.  The whitish stuff on the lid is actually glue between two pieces of acrylic.  Since I only have one light and its in the center, i can pretty much even put a towel on the top of my tank and cover up the outer 5-10" and still have most of the tank lit.  The light rays obviously go in at angle from the center.  I'm not really sure if i have the appropriate amount of light but the corals and bubble tips seem pretty happy, although I only have a couple corals at the momemt.

 

So that comes back to my weekend project....

 

This time its all one piece with support from the tank on all 4 edges.  The bowing I saw before was immediately when I cut it and lost support from one edge.   The other thing is I cut the squares out uniformly so there would be like a "grid structure" to support it going in both directions.  I think the long slits on the old one would promote further warping.

 

Anyways hopefully this weekend coming up i'll get it finished up, and I can get some pics online of it done, and I can do a followup in a few months on if it was stable or not long-term.

 

As for tools that i'm using, pretty much i have some basic clips from home depot to hold the acrylic to a table (or hold a few pieces together when i'm glueing).  The glue is red/white container above the acrylic at home depot. It says it sets in 15 minutes then final curing in like half a day or something.  Anyways I clip it for 15 minutes then move to next piece.   As for cutting i'm using a dremel along with a quick-connect thing that littles like a baby skill-saw. Its maybe the size of a face of a large wrist watch.  I'm cutting everything by hand, just follow the marked black line on the acrylic itself.  I also have two T squares that i'm using as a ruler and a sharpie to mark the lines.  Pretty much i'm just home hobbiest using what I have to make it happen.  I'm doing it all on a small folding table on my porch without a fancy garage full of tools.

 

Thanks

 

Nathan

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Oh I might have missed, I have a BRS DIY Screen that I lay ontop of the tops.  (to address fish jumping out).

 

Here is current lid with old DIY screen. (I plan to make a larger screen to fit new top properly).

17500311504_bf5357d97b_b.jpg

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