patboone7

Well after setting things up I did a water test at the LFS and they just said my ph was heading a little high, just do some more water changes. Their reason was I had too many fish in my 30 gal and I used most of that water to fill my 55, but I put 1 of my cascading filters on, my Fluval 103 under cabinet and things seem to be working quite well.

My only problem is I bought a new hood all-glass.com brand or something. Looks great, but the hoods are seperate and do not fit on my tank, I noticed some tanks have like dividers across them, mine is a very old tank and does not! Can you buy this divider so everything fits? The dimensions are what it said I have so I got it, but then realized I don't have that inner lip to support it. The light ballast is long enough, so for now it's just sittin up there!

Heres the pics!

Getting setup



Set up and running, still adding fish, rocks and plants!



Heres the top of my 55 and the hood I bought, this is what I was talking about

patboone7

heres my fluval underneath. Still in the works, gonna add an under light and some other things!

gm333

Yeah thats a problem, first suggestion is to take a 3x12x1/4" piece of plexiglass, you will also need a 1/2" piece that will glue under the other piece to add strength to the plexiglass. Then epoxy the brace in the center. Here is a small diagram that might help explain better.

Tommy Gun

You can purchase new 'moldings' for your tank and you could get one with the divider. I do not know the costs but I am sure that All-glass sells them. The other problem being that you could wreck your tank while trying to 'pry' off the old one.

I would go with GM's idea and DIY. I used the strips of acrylic to keep my lights off my SW tank but under the canopy. Acrylic was suggested to me because it doesnt melt easy and remains very clear. I do not know if plexiglass is the same or not, so I thought I would bring that up. You can get acrylic strips from most any hardware store for a reasonable price. In any case, I would make darn sure that the lights dont fall completely into the water!

fishuz

Plexi glass will melt but that depends on how hot the source is

__________________

30g FW
2 Cichlids
2 Barbs
2 Tetras
1 Chinese algae eater
77g FW
1Empty

gm333

T-5s and pc's will not get hot enough to melt 1/4" plexiglass, acryilc would be better but its also a lot higher in price. Glass would be a lot better than both of those, but silicone does not stick to plastic very well and the glass might slip off.

patboone7

Dang that sucks! I have to DIY something! Well the light is a flouresent and I don't think it will get that hot! I will venture on to say that I can probably just go head to the Home Depot and grab a sheet of precut plexi and "drop it like it's hot". Should stay cool enough. I'm bummed, It's a good tank, but old and the original hood is terrible and for $50 I couldn't pass up the deal for the hood. Anyway I'll keep ya'll posted, my next day off is friday, maybe a trip to the hardware store!!!!!!!

patboone7

Thanks GM333, I will probably try that out!

Tommy Gun

If you are planning on just getting a piece of plastic or glass to cover the entire tank, which to me it sounds like you might be thinking about, make sure that you do not totally seal off the tank from the air as this can lead to a lack of oxygen in the water. If this is your plan, I would cut some holes in the glass/plastic to allow for air to move in and out across the water surface.