The DIY Tank Cover
If you have followed my tank journal, you will notice that I have lost quite a few fish to carpet surfing. Finally having had enough of this, and also wanting to maybe one day keep some sort of wrasse (renowned jumpers), i decided to put together a mesh cover for the tank. obviously it would ruin the whole 'rimless' look of the setup, but it was a sacrifice i was willing to make.
The cover had to be made under three conditions:
For the mesh, I had nothing suitable at home so i used a product i found at bunnings called 'Tree Tubes'. It is a plastic based meshed with approximately 5mm holes - cost about $5. The original mesh is black in colour but i sprayed mine white.
For the frame, i used 12mm aluminium angle framing that i had lying around in the shed. It was perfect since it was light, and also quite thin, so i wouldn't end up with a big fat frame on top of the tank.
I used mitre joints to put the frame together and then used some liquid nails to glue the mesh to the underside of the aluminium. I then glued some white plastic over the mesh so as to 'sandwich' the mesh between the aluminium and plastic.
So far, i had satisfied conditions 1 and 2. Condition 3 was the one that had me stumped for a while. I wanted to make a simple modification to the cover so that it could easily be opened and closed. So instead of using the aluminium angle along the back of the frame, i used a length of irrigation rising tube:
I glued the tube to a couple of plastic clips that would clip onto the glass edge of the tank.
I then drilled a hole in the aluminium frame where it would line up with the hole in the tube.
I then used 65mm galvanised nails as the pins of the 'hinge' and these nails would fit through the hole of the aluminium frame, and into the centre of the irrigation tube.
The cover has now satisfied all three conditions.
However i added a last little touch which would make life much easier. When the cover was to be opened, i would need one hand to hold it open. so i installed a little magnet on the frame, and a metal plate on the underside of the light canopy so that the cover would hold itself up, freeing up both my hands to do whatever i needed to.
Hope that helps!
The cover had to be made under three conditions:
- Had to be cheap - preferably made from materials available at home.
- Had to be minimalistic - i did not want the cover to be too obtrusive and take away from the tank. I wanted to make it as small as possible.
- Had to be easily removed or opened/closed for when access into the tank was needed.
For the mesh, I had nothing suitable at home so i used a product i found at bunnings called 'Tree Tubes'. It is a plastic based meshed with approximately 5mm holes - cost about $5. The original mesh is black in colour but i sprayed mine white.
For the frame, i used 12mm aluminium angle framing that i had lying around in the shed. It was perfect since it was light, and also quite thin, so i wouldn't end up with a big fat frame on top of the tank.
I used mitre joints to put the frame together and then used some liquid nails to glue the mesh to the underside of the aluminium. I then glued some white plastic over the mesh so as to 'sandwich' the mesh between the aluminium and plastic.
So far, i had satisfied conditions 1 and 2. Condition 3 was the one that had me stumped for a while. I wanted to make a simple modification to the cover so that it could easily be opened and closed. So instead of using the aluminium angle along the back of the frame, i used a length of irrigation rising tube:
I glued the tube to a couple of plastic clips that would clip onto the glass edge of the tank.
I then drilled a hole in the aluminium frame where it would line up with the hole in the tube.
I then used 65mm galvanised nails as the pins of the 'hinge' and these nails would fit through the hole of the aluminium frame, and into the centre of the irrigation tube.
The cover has now satisfied all three conditions.
However i added a last little touch which would make life much easier. When the cover was to be opened, i would need one hand to hold it open. so i installed a little magnet on the frame, and a metal plate on the underside of the light canopy so that the cover would hold itself up, freeing up both my hands to do whatever i needed to.
Hope that helps!
