Covering Tank Top
 

Well I now have to cover my tank - 120 gal - 48 x 24 x 24 (no centre brace) as I now have fish that are prone to jumping! Learned this the hard way yesterday after losing a new fish. Thought I would be OK for 18 hours! Guess not.
My options are glass, eggcrate or some kind of netting. Will eggcrate diffuse the light at all and would dartfish be able to get through the openings?
Glass will be a pain to keep clean and I will have to get it cut so that I can lift up a section to feed. Will gas exchange be limited having it completely covered in glass?
Would netting not sag in the middle and end up in the water?

Looking for some suggestions on what would be best and detract the least from the beauty of the tank which is why I did not want to cover it.

Look at Kien's tank journal. He has a nice write up about his cover. I believe he made it out of screen door material.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/...ing-7-x-3.html
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/...rium-tops.html
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/...rium-tops.html
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/...m-corners.html

Tanks for the tip Carole. Recently we have had our 5" yellow wrase make 2 attempts, once on the floor, and a trip over to our hospital tank. Took 2 days to get him back over.

The actual name for eggcrate is light difuser panels, so yes, it will difuse the light..... Covering completely with glass will limit gas exchange and increase heat, on the up side it cuts back on evaporation..... No need to order from BRS.... you can find everything locally....HD, totem etc has the aluminum chanel and any of the bigger garden centers should have the netting

Rather than order from BRS, go to your local Canadian Tire and get a roll of there garden netting and a screen frame kit. Took me less than an hour to build.

What the user name so I can look at the post?

Kien is one of those tricky guys whose user name is the same as his real name:wink:

lol

Went to both Rona and Totem and Sunnyside - all the garden netting has too large of holes to use. They only had screening which I do not like because I can't even feed pellets through it. Will be ordering some 1/4 clear screening in. Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

You can double-up and over-lap the larger netting if you're alright with the way it'll look.

Yes, I just went to HD to get the window screen stuff (frame, corners, spline, spline roller), and I bought the 1/4" clear netting from BRS.

It was a bit tricky to get the netting tight, but overall it worked great and looks good. Doesnt block any light at all on my 29gal LED frag tank.

Canadian Tire Garden section is where I found my screen, 1/4" but 50' roll for like 10.00 this one is 29 x 16"

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18798128/Tan...%20006-800.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18798128/Tan...%20005-800.jpg

Pics are blurry but gives you an idea about what to look for .

I used the plastic chicken wire you can get at canadian tire .....my diy skills impressed the hell out of my husband who was expecting my usual bubblegum and masking tape kinda job :lol:

I guess i should look into this, I just found my flasher wrasse as a dried up piece of jerkey behind my tank :( Not bad tho, first jumper in 4 years.

yah, screens are definitely the way to go, I've lost two cleaner wrasses and a mystery wrasse through light diffuser. I also lost a Labouti wrasse because it was strong enough to knock the cover clean off the tank.

If there is only one awkward angle of approach for them to fit through the hole, they will find it.