Fishkeeper hobbyists will surely agree, the glass with flimsy plastic hinges is barely adequate when new, and more trouble than it’s worth after a few months. The hinges vary in quality but eventually always tear, and cleaning involves either complete removal or a painful exercise in arm contortion. So I spent some time coming up with a comprehensive re-design.
I’ve been using acrylic window sheeting for various things, but the aquarium lid application had a warp-age problem, I suspect from varying temps across the surface due to heat from the lights. I wasn’t going to take a chance trying to solve it just going thicker, because it gets expensive quick. The 3/8″ pieces used here are 2’x2′ costing $50@. We’ll find out soon enough, but I’m hoping the aluminum frame and back-bracing will keep things flat.
A big benefit for the fish is bright new, full-spectrum LEDs. But more importantly, we now have easy access for maintenance and cleaning, with no risk of dropping a piece of glass into the tank when the hinges fail. There is a 1/4″ gap along the sides of each lid promoting more evaporation – a big plus in our typically dry environment here. The prop stick shown is a prototype setup for measurement, to be replaced with something more substantial in the future.
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