My DIY top

Well first off, thanks to Kogo for reassuring this would work.

so its a 69 gallon tank, I had no top, and needed one, with access.

So I headed to home depot and got a sheet of 4x2 eggcrate for $10 plus tax. Brought it home, cut it to fit, dremeled the edges a bit smoother so it would fit in nice.

Next I cut 8 inches or so off one end of my main fitting piece, I then used an extra piece of eggcrate under the main big peice(white garbage bag ties) This piece sticks out so my 8 inch piece can rest along that edge since I cut it. Where the Largest and 8 inch piece meet I also had to dremel to dremel those edges so everything would fit nice.

The piece underneath is about 4 inches wide, so it also acts as light support. I installed 2 more pieces like this underneath with white garbage bag ties across the eggcrate for light support.

I used a removable tie wrap on the 2 sections, it flips up and stays in place just fine!

Overall it's working good for $10, and I have nice access for water changes, and it slides right in and out beautiful, not bulging with the double ups of egg crate.

That's some already twisted up plexi under the lights, I was thinking getting a couple pieces cut to fit that I can strap to the eggcrate

Also maybe some krylon fusion for the egg crate?

oh and thats just an extra piece sitting on top.

rnocera;2681028; said:

If you use Lexan, it won't warp the way plexi does. It's a bit more expensive, but well worth it in my eyes.

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Cool any special way to drill Lexan?

eoertel1082;2681052; said:

nice work!

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Thanks!

Thalan;2681088; said:

nice "hinge". I just did one of these myself but I cut it into two pieces to sit on either side of the center brace.

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Thanks, my tank has no center brace, I just needed to be able to have access without moving the lights all around, and the hinge is nice, just flip the panel up and down

rnocera;2682313; said:

The same as standard plexi. I've gotten best results by using a high speed drill and taking it nice & slow. Don't push through the Lexan, just let the drill's weight do the work to keep it from cracking.
But, that holds through with pretty much every plastic I've ever drilled!

The lid looks nice. Sorry I forgot to include that in the first post! The ONLY problem I see with this is that I had a 10 gallon given to me with a lid made like this one time, and my cat is heavy enough that when she jumped on it, it cracked and fell down into the tank.

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Thanks, that's why I strapped second pieces of eggcrate underneath, and plan to strap down Lexan, it's already pretty solid, the lexan will make it even beefier. My cat won't go through it atleast(shes pretty small also).

Kogo;2682350; said:

your welcome!

good job!

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Thanks again!

Pharaoh;2682396; said:

I have something like this for my 125. I need to cover the diffuser with something though. I am losing too much water to evaporation. Nice Job though. Looks better than mine. I just threw it on top. LOL

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Thanks, i'm liking it, and would do it again.

Nyquil Junkie;2683239; said:

Thats a sweet idea. Thanks!

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No problem!

Oh and the white bread ties are really stealth, I can't even notice them now, but I think the little wire in them might rust soon, i'll keep an eye and if they start, then over to zip ties i go.