DIY lid

So on my 20L fry grow-out tank, I mounted the HOB filter on the side, rather than on the back of the tank. The main reason for doing it this way is to encourage a tank-long flow pattern; the full length of the 20L water column wouldn't be stirred very well by a single back-mounted HOB. And since this tank is on the bottom of my 55 stand, it's far easier to access the filter if it's on the side rather than the back. But that means that all the commercial tank tops won't fit - they're all configured for back-mounted hardware. Enter the wisdom of the internet: the DIY side-opening lid, constructed from a piece of plastic molding and your choice of clear flat stuff from Lowe's. I ended up going with acrylic - I would have preferred polycarbonate (Lexan) but that stuff's more expensive, and unfortunately it looked like Lowe's was out of a lot of their stock options when I went shopping, so in order to "waste" the least amount of material when I got the panels cut, I was pretty much stuck with the Duraplex. It's a little thinner than would be optimal, I suspect, but as long as I don't try to rest things on it, it should hold just fine. For added stability one could glue down the tracks, but that also means you'll have a hard time getting the thing off if you need to, so that's right out.


Oh yeah, I also added a thin layer of sand and some rock hiding places, since the fry are from two different batches and the little ones need hiding places from the big one! Half an hour after install, you can see the lid trapping humidity - hopefully this will drastically cut down on water loss through evaporation this winter.


Now all I have to do is figure out a background for this tank...