Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.

Click here to visit Classifieds
Click for ZooMed
Click here to visit Classifieds

aquarium Lid need ideas and help please

svt-sinister Dec 01, 2003 11:20 AM

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on a top for this aquarium...Right now i have a screen top but everytime i need to get into the cage i have to take all the lights off and its a pain in the butt. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to build a new top or anything??

Replies (5)

svt-sinister Dec 01, 2003 11:21 AM

woops wrong picture

svt-sinister Dec 01, 2003 11:22 AM

ok forget it....IGNORE THIS THREAD

svt-sinister Dec 01, 2003 11:23 AM

ignore this thread

LeoBeginner Dec 02, 2003 09:10 AM

The lid I built wasn't for a beardie (it was for a leo), but it fits snugly and looks good.

When I bought my tank (10gal...much smaller than yours likely), I also bought a rectangular light fixture that fits in the corner (we leo people don't need to deal with multiple fixtures and UV and such...). So I needed a snug fitting lid that could make this shape:

-----------
Light | |
-------- |
| Lid |
| |
-------------------

Man...I hope my kickass drawing comes out right! (it's not to scale)

So What I did was buy some aluminum screen (a roll cost $6.99Cdn at Home depot) and some baseboard trim. It's 1/4" trim. I bought some 'reverse round' which has a 2 flat sides, and a curve into it. You can buy simple 1/4" square trim too, or really decorative fancy mouldings. I think an 8 foot length of it costs about $4Cdn.

So what I did was build a lid out of the screen and trim. It cost me a little over $10 and looks great. I spent a little more to get the oak trim (I liked the look of it more). but you can get cheaper pine and paint it up, or whatever.

To fasten it all together, finishing nails will work fine if you predrill the holes, or even screw nails. you can staple the screen to the trim on the bottom and it looks good from the top.

I had a hot glue gun handy, so I used it to attach everything together instead. It was fast, and easy. And if something didn't fit right, I could heat it up and take it apart to try again. I don't know if hot glue would work well for you, or if the higher heat of a beardie enclosure would melt it. I guess that's something to look into.

The lid sits snuggly into the frame of the aquarium,and is nice and light so when I take it off to feed or clean, it's not a major chore. No more moving light fixtures either...

Good luck.
-----
Blaine

0.0.1 HY/Patternless/Normal Leo (Echo)

LeoBeginner Dec 02, 2003 09:11 AM

the extra spaces were removed when I posted it. grrr...

but it was a light in the top left corner, and a lid that formed an L on its side

_____|
-----
Blaine

0.0.1 HY/Patternless/Normal Leo (Echo)

Site Tools