Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was looking for how to make a home-made sponge filter for my aquarium, and I came across a bunch of DIY stuff.

The first one is information on how to make an aquarium canopy out of that plastic stuff that covers flourescent lights in ceilings. Think about drop ceilings, and how they have that bumpy opaque plastic stuff on them, so that when you look at them, you don't see a single tube of light, but a big 2x3 square of light.

That stuff. But, there's a description thrown in, just in case the picture doesn't outlink.
I posted a while back about making a lid for a hexagon tank out of plexiglass. The plexi didn't work, but, would that stuff work? My tank is only for crested geckos, and in the future, I might turn it into an aquarium (although I'd probably put newts in it, instead of fish). So, I'm not looking at having at on of heat on it, but definitely a light fixture at least for plant growth. Probably a 15 watt bulb or so.
Will that work to make lid, or will it warp, the same as my plexiglass did?

And secondly-
I've seen different people on here use cement as cage decorations. I'm thinking about coating some styrofoam in cement (specifically, Quikrete Hydraulic Water-Stop Instant Plug Cement was recommended as safe for fish & working good) to make both cage decorations, and aquarium decorations. I know that it needs to cure, and I know that before you put it in water, or fill it with water, it needs to cure in water as well, to keep it from changing the pH of the water. How long does this take? I'm figuring I'll start out with a few things small enough to all fit in a 5 gallon bucket, and I'll be able to do 100% water changes daily with ease. How long should I let it cure before putting it in the water? I'm assuming about a week? Once in the water, I'm thinking 2-3 weeks would probably work. Now, I will buy a pH testing kit, but, I'd like to know how long I can expect this to take before I start making things. Better safe than sorry. I'd hate to find out that I left stuff sit for 3 weeks, and my readings were fine, and then find out I was doing readings wrong, and it takes 6 weeks to cure.

Hmm - not sure about the cement, but for the drop-ceiling plastic, how big is your hex tank? If the plexi you had before was bowing downwards, you might want to cut a few strips of the drop-ceiling plastic to make braces to help reinforce it. These could be on the topside (therefore less visible) of the plastic, and glued on. Maybe even stack a few strips (glued together) to make it even more rigid.

So, you'd have a sort of shape, more or less. Just an idea, not sure what kind of glue or epoxy will bond that sort of plastic, however. I believe you can also buy L-shaped rod, in clear plastic or acrylic (say from USplastic), and use that to reinforce the drop-ceiling stuff. Not sure if that would be cost-effective, though.

You just need something rigid running across the width and length of the sheet to make it less floppy (kind of like dowels on a kite, more or less). Hope this helps- I'm sure there are more ways to do this...
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com
1.0 Ball Python, 1.1 Hog Island Boas, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 Green Tree Python

Oops. When I typed "So you'd have a shape", I had a plus sign in there... so I meant a "plus shape", or X shape. It didn't show up when I posted though.
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com
1.0 Ball Python, 1.1 Hog Island Boas, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 Green Tree Python

The or X shape won't work. As you can see in this pic here,

It's each individual corner of the hexagon that bows. I don't know if the drop ceiling plastic would be strong enough to keep it from warping? I'm not worried about keeping the critters in- right now, I'm putting in a crested gecko that definitely couldn't get out, and next summer, I'm going to put in some newts. I just need it to be on top of the cage, so when they crawl up the sides, they can't climb right out. They definitely won't be able to push up on it, and if they could, I could weight it with any number of things at the edges.

But thanks for the idea!

I actually found a more complete article about it, at http://www.gcca.net/howto/tank_covers.htm
The guy who made the cover from the light cover said: "Purchase a 2' by 4' sheet of Styrene Prismatic Clear Lighting Panel. The green labeled material at right is available from Home Depot. Expect to pay between $3 and $5.

This is the cheapest material and works better than more expensive acrylic sheets which warp."

So, I now have a brand name AND a comment that says it won't warp! I guess I'm gonna have to go buy a sheet of it tomorrow, and try it out. I'll put it on my aquarium first, and see how it holds up on there, with the humidity & the heat from the light. At worst, I'll have water evaporate from the aquarium. I'll make another post after it's been on for a while, and show how it worked out.

And for the cement-
I found that cement takes anywhere from 17 days (for small amounts) to 8 weeks (for large, solid clumps) to cure. Adding epsom salts, or any type of uniodized salt will help it cure faster, as will adding a bubbler to the water. I'm unsure if water changes are actually necessary- some say it is, a few say it isn't. I'm going to buy a gasket so I can put an on/off valve on the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, and set the bucket up on bricks in the basement. Then, I'll just run a hose to the drain in the floor to drain it, that way, I'm not worrying about lifting the 20 lbs of cement and however many pounds of water. At that point, I'll change it daily, or every other day, anyway.