What do you use for a lid??

[Dive Girl]

I have a 29 gallon tank and am upgrading my lights which are currently CF to a MH with T5s. I have to have a lid as I have fish that is supposed to be jumper (jawfish) and I'm also going to need to sit the new light onto the lid.

What do you use as a lid?

[Lance]

Guessing its a SW you dont want to cover. SW tanks get the main O2 supply through a surface exchange and this would restrict air exchange alot.

Many use an eggcrate type material to help prevent fish loss.

[Dive Girl]

Yep, SW reef. I have the egg crate now which I use. I guess I'm just wondering if the MH will get too hot for use with the egg crate?

[The R/C Man]

Typically the MH should be about 9" from the water or higher. On my 25 gallon I also tried to use eggcrate to keep fish from jumping.... Here are the problems with it. First, it reduces light penitration into the tank by 25% which is bad for your coral. Second, the fish I tried to keep from jumping (a Blue Spotted Jawfish) managed to jump through the grate and died anyway. So what is my point? Fish usually jump because they are stressed. They could be in an environment that is way to small or there are hostile fish in the tank with it. So my suggestion would be to eliminate the eggcrate in favor of smaller and compatable fish. Just a thought...

[weez1959]

I made a cover from an idea I saw on another site, can't remember which!
Anyways you just have to go to Home Depot or any store that has aluminum parts to make a screen for windows, Just pick up the lengths you need, the amount of corners you need and the spline and the tool for the spline but instead of using screening, you use black or clear or white bird netting with 1/2" squares.
I find it works great and it doesn't block light or air and I haven't had a jumper since!

I can take a pic if you want but only tomorrow, I'm charging my camera batterie right now...

[Dive Girl]

Well, I ended up making my own lid. I made a frame to fit using 3/4" x 3/4" wood and then used galvanized metal mesh, also called hardware cloth to create the screen. It's very sturdy.

This was actually the second one I have made. The first lid I made without using a frame. I cut the metal mesh to fit the tank perfectly but it wasn't as sturdy as I desired. By attaching the mesh to a frame, I've got a perfect lid.