lid for tank?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 8:31 am

Hey everyone, I'm setting up my 35 gallon for the crabbies and I"m not sure how I want to do the lid. I have one of those black plastic hoods for fish tanks, but it only has 1 light in it, I was thinking of taking one of the little lights from our old 65gal hood and putting that behind the long normal light but it won't fit... SO I'm thinking maybe I should just make my own hood with enough holes for lights that I feel I need. I want to use a couple of different lights so I can have the nightglo and dayglo running at different times. I'm not planning on using a UTH since my substrate is so deep so the lights will be the heat source. What do you all think? I'm going to have to do a little shopping to get all the lights but if I'm going to go get light bulbs (20min drive) I might as well go get plexi or something to make the hood out of... What do you reccommend making the hood out of? Plexi? We have this funny plastic sign board stuff that is like cardboard, I thought about using that but don't know if it will melt... I was also thinking of using wood, but would wood rot? Also what wattage do I need to heat a tank that big? or should I just get one of those infrared heat bulbs and use that to heat the tank and just use the lights for lighting?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 9:24 am

for my personal tank I have a 20 gal long, and im using the dual light with the night glo and day glo long bulbs in it and it works great! also i have a screen top like what a lizard would have and HOPEFULLY this weekend i will be able to cover the top around my light with plexi (but only 3/4 of it cause my water fall and fogger would make the tank 100% humid if the water didn't have an escape) BUT until I get the plexi all i have surrounding it is cling wrap which works just fine until you can get plexi (its just a pain having to re-ajust it everytime you move the lid)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 6:29 pm

ok so I went and priced one of those dual lights.... $85 for a 24 inch which isn't long enough for my tank! YEAH RIGHT! geez! I couldn't believe it and it was ON SALE! It also took normal light bulbs not the long skinny ones. Bah! It was an ESU Bi-Light, unfortunately the petsmart didn't have the combo incandescant flourescent ones they have online. They also didn't have the thermostat in store like they have online... grrr, stupid American website not having an up to date Canadian inventory!!!
I think what I'm going to do is use my own lights and build a hood, think if I use wood it'll mold or exude some sort of toxic stuff? lol descriptive I know... I was thinking of using the plastic stuff but John thinks it'll melt. Maybe I'll use wood and plexi, put the plexi on the tank side of the wood and put the lights on the wood? Does anyone have any experience building a hood? OOH and any suggestions for a thermostat/rheostat?
I looked at the screen lids but I thought it'd be too much of a hassle taking the whole lid off and putting it back on every time I needed to get into the tank.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 9:25 pm

this is the one for petsmart that I have:

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_ ... 30051&Ne=2
...and the Canadian price wasn't far off the american price...I didn't get the one with the long incondecent since one day glo buld was PLENTY of light for the tank. you DON"T need to go the full lenght of your tank as long as the light comming out shines to all ends. and the plexi won't melt its not THAT hot on the outside of the light fixture

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:48 am

Around here (Oregon) you can get a Flukers dual light for 30 dollars or so. It fits a ten gallon, but you should be able to get the tat temperature right by adjusting your bulb wattage. I have one for my twenty long and I have to use the smallest bulbs to keep my temp low enough, and they definately light up the whole tank.

I love my hood system, though it is not very high tech. For seven dollars I bought a peice of plexi-glass and had it cut to my tank size and then cut in half again. The halves run the length of my tank. The back half supports my lighting, and it sits on a thin strip of wood to reinforce the plexi glass so that the heavy lighting doesn't make it sag. The front half can be taken on and off easily so that I can change food and water dishes. If it wasn't 11 at night I would go take a picture and post it, but I am soooo sleepy, so my description hopefully will help. I love not having to move my lighting system to get in the tat.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:54 am

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I definitely didn't see the ESU bi-light you posted Ace, or I would have snapped it up, I saw a different one, the 20" one I saw was over $60. I know that plexi won't melt, but I have some white plastic posterboard stuff that I was thinking of using that might melt

I'm going to call a reptile specialty store and see how much their bi-light goes for.
I think I need a picture barbara, lol, I can't picture it. It does sound like a good idea though. Right now I'm thinking of using the two little lights, which if I put end to end would be too long, but if I stagger them won't be too long. I would only have a lid over half the tank though... I'll have to think on it. It's a good thing we still have a month to move!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 12:28 am

Thalia wrote:I think I need a picture barbara, lol, I can't picture it. It does sound like a good idea though. Right now I'm thinking of using the two little lights, which if I put end to end would be too long, but if I stagger them won't be too long. I would only have a lid over half the tank though... I'll have to think on it. It's a good thing we still have a month to move!

I know! Too confusing! I just tried to take a picture but I can't get a shot of the top, my crabitat is on a bottom shelf thingy and you can't see the top well. Maybe my subterranean little boogers will surface soon so I can clean their tank and then I can take a picture.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 11:29 am

Ok

I think I've figured out something... I'm going to use plexi and I'm going to put one light at the back corner and another at the front corner, they'll over lap eachother a little since they're 23 inches long and the tank is 36" long, and then in the spots where the lights aren't I'm going to cut out removable sections to use as lids

I think it will be something like yours barbra. What kind of wood did you use for the support? you didn't find that it molds or anything?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 12:22 am

So far so good with the mold, I have other things that like to mold, but the wood is doing good. I got the wood at the hardware store. I think it was supposed to be used for moulding (like around the bottom of walls, in case I didn't spell it right and you can't figure out what I was talking about). It was about ten feet long and was stacked in with a bunch of other sizes and shapes. It is about and inch wide and an eighth of an inch thick. They cut the length to size for me at the hardware store.

When we were doing all of our lid stuff (it took two attempts to get what we wanted) Amelia (my 4 year old) would tell the clerks what we were using the stuff for, and then they would get really interested and help us figure out what would work the best. It was great.