Vincerama2
Supporting Member
Hi guys!
After my tang decide to jump into the overflow and cost me an hour of draining and trying to net a fish blindly while standing on a ladder, I decided I needed to make a cover for the overflows. I use tinfoil just to prevent another jump, with the plan to cut some acrylic to make a cover. I was wishing I could use cardboard, but that would get soggy and disintegrate very quickly ... so I wished there was plastic cardboard ... well there is!
It's called "twinwall" and you get it at Home Depot for like $13 for a 6'x3' sheet. You can cut it with a utility knife. It is polypropylene so it basically can't be glued by anything reasonably cheaply (I read that a special 3M hot melt glue works, but it's expensive). You can poke/drill holes and bind it together with zip ties though!
Anyway, I created the overflow cover, and create an "anti-suicide" barrier to prevent fish from carpet surfing. The suicide barrier I screwed into part of the canopy with a single stainless steel screw.
Thoughts on it's uses...
- A light anti-evaporation cover for sumps
- Splash guards around drain entry in sump
- Suicide barrier
- overflow cover
- spray paint it and tape it to the back of the tank as a backdrop. not sure how well paint would stick to it though.
- Anywhere you wish you had plastic cardboard!
- Oh yeah, I have a bunch of those reusable shopping bags that all have flimsy fabric covered cardboard at the bottom to keep it's square shape. They suck so I'm going to use my extra twinwall to make new bag bottoms! Not tank related, but handy!
here's a picture of the suicide barrier and the overflow cover. And yes, I could have cut a hole for the heater cord at the bottom of the barrier but I didn't because that heater is headed for the sump anyway.
Anyway, I thought I'd mention it as it's quite handy!
V
After my tang decide to jump into the overflow and cost me an hour of draining and trying to net a fish blindly while standing on a ladder, I decided I needed to make a cover for the overflows. I use tinfoil just to prevent another jump, with the plan to cut some acrylic to make a cover. I was wishing I could use cardboard, but that would get soggy and disintegrate very quickly ... so I wished there was plastic cardboard ... well there is!
It's called "twinwall" and you get it at Home Depot for like $13 for a 6'x3' sheet. You can cut it with a utility knife. It is polypropylene so it basically can't be glued by anything reasonably cheaply (I read that a special 3M hot melt glue works, but it's expensive). You can poke/drill holes and bind it together with zip ties though!
Anyway, I created the overflow cover, and create an "anti-suicide" barrier to prevent fish from carpet surfing. The suicide barrier I screwed into part of the canopy with a single stainless steel screw.
Thoughts on it's uses...
- A light anti-evaporation cover for sumps
- Splash guards around drain entry in sump
- Suicide barrier
- overflow cover
- spray paint it and tape it to the back of the tank as a backdrop. not sure how well paint would stick to it though.
- Anywhere you wish you had plastic cardboard!
- Oh yeah, I have a bunch of those reusable shopping bags that all have flimsy fabric covered cardboard at the bottom to keep it's square shape. They suck so I'm going to use my extra twinwall to make new bag bottoms! Not tank related, but handy!
here's a picture of the suicide barrier and the overflow cover. And yes, I could have cut a hole for the heater cord at the bottom of the barrier but I didn't because that heater is headed for the sump anyway.
Anyway, I thought I'd mention it as it's quite handy!
V
