Making A Replacement Glass Lid For Arcadia Arc Tank

[cybergibbons]

Good Evening,

I've just got an Arcadia Arc tank, and the supplied lid bothers me in a few ways

• The fit leaves a large gap around the edge, allowing dust in and humid air out
• It's not strong enough to take the weight of my cat...
• It's plain glass and rather thin, and I am worried about it getting broken

You can see the current design on this photo:

The first of those bothers me most. I'd like to make a replacement lid for it, and my idea is to make a lid that is just slightly larger than the profile of the entire tank, and then glue smaller pieces underneath where the corners of the existing lid are to allow it to be accurately located. The diagram shows it (sorry, not got anything decent to draw a diagram in):

The blue rectangle is the existing lid, with the white cut-outs being the handle holes. The larger curved rectangle is the new lid, with the 4 red squares being the glued-on locating pieces, with the small black rectangle being a cut out for the cable entry.

I'd like to get this made from something that can take a few knocks and is a bit safer than plate glass... but I have a few questions:

1. Is toughened glass necessary? I know this needs to be cut before being tempered. Or can I just go for thick glass?
2. Are the any sorts of glass that would change the properties of the light entering the tank? I have one Arcadia Arc pod above the glass and want to have live plants in the tank, and don't want to filter out essential parts of the light.
3. Has anyone else done this?

 

[AdAndrews]

When i was thinking about this, the main priority for me was a lid that was able to fit on with the arc pods, being as though they stick out a little, in the end i decided on just a plain glass that was cut basically, measuring the length of the tank, and then something like an inch off the back, to allow the arc pods to sit.

I went to a local glass cutters, it only cost £1, alternatively you could make one out of perspex plastic, you can buy it on ebay, however it is a more costly and difficult option, i heard it isnt as easy as it looks to cut perspex.

Adam

ps. dust and "humid air" being exchanged is not a problem. also, as i run mine without a lid now, the cat cant sit on it if they wanted to....

 

[cybergibbons]

I forgot to mention the mounting of the Arc Pod. I'm not quite sure what I am going to do with them but want to work out something that means it isn't going to need a cut out in the lid. Either an external mount, mounting to the wall, or mounting to the lid itself.

The dust and humid air are purely aesthetic reasons, and if I didn't have a lid my cat would be swimming in it.

Acrylic or Lexan are options, but I've found from previous projects it has been hard to get a decent finish on the edges.

 

[Ed Green]

I forgot to mention the mounting of the Arc Pod. I'm not quite sure what I am going to do with them but want to work out something that means it isn't going to need a cut out in the lid. Either an external mount, mounting to the wall, or mounting to the lid itself.

The dust and humid air are purely aesthetic reasons, and if I didn't have a lid my cat would be swimming in it.

Acrylic or Lexan are options, but I've found from previous projects it has been hard to get a decent finish on the edges.

When I get around to it I will be having a new glass lid fit for my 35l arc tank - just a thought, if you want live plants you may want to buy a second arc pod light and line them up next to each other as I do - increases your WPG as they are only 11watt lights. If you do go for that option you will want to make the cut away twice as long as standard to accommodate their fat bases.

 

[AK77]

I forgot to mention the mounting of the Arc Pod. I'm not quite sure what I am going to do with them but want to work out something that means it isn't going to need a cut out in the lid. Either an external mount, mounting to the wall, or mounting to the lid itself.

The dust and humid air are purely aesthetic reasons, and if I didn't have a lid my cat would be swimming in it.

Acrylic or Lexan are options, but I've found from previous projects it has been hard to get a decent finish on the edges.

I'd suggest acrylic too. To get a nice finish on the edges you need to use tools with a straight edge/fence/guide to get perfectly straight cuts. A decent bandsaw or a jigsaw with a steady hand to do those corners. Once its all cut to size, clean them up the machined edges with wet and dry paper first. Finally, you need a blow torch and flame polish the edges.

 

[cybergibbons]

I forgot to mention the mounting of the Arc Pod. I'm not quite sure what I am going to do with them but want to work out something that means it isn't going to need a cut out in the lid. Either an external mount, mounting to the wall, or mounting to the lid itself.

The dust and humid air are purely aesthetic reasons, and if I didn't have a lid my cat would be swimming in it.

Acrylic or Lexan are options, but I've found from previous projects it has been hard to get a decent finish on the edges.

I'd suggest acrylic too. To get a nice finish on the edges you need to use tools with a straight edge/fence/guide to get perfectly straight cuts. A decent bandsaw or a jigsaw with a steady hand to do those corners. Once its all cut to size, clean them up the machined edges with wet and dry paper first. Finally, you need a blow torch and flame polish the edges.

Exactly - pretty hard to get decent edges! I've only got a jigsaw right now, and it's pretty hard getting a good cut without melting the edges, or worse, catching and shattering the acrylic.

 

[cybergibbons]

[quote name='Ed Green' date='13 January 2010 - 10:01 AM' timestamp='1263377095' post='2638209]
When I get around to it I will be having a new glass lid fit for my 35l arc tank - just a thought, if you want live plants you may want to buy a second arc pod light and line them up next to each other as I do - increases your WPG as they are only 11watt lights. If you do go for that option you will want to make the cut away twice as long as standard to accommodate their fat bases.
[/quote]

I really want to work out another way of mounting it to avoid the huge cutout, but I am still working on that.

 

[AK77]

Yeah it will be a problem. I had to turn the router down to a lower setting as it was melting the acrylic at 22'000 RPM lol.

I did have very good results with my little circular saw though. I think it's 5" diameter Elu blade, which is 24 tooth (I think - might be 30). Because its so small, the teeth are close together and I get a very good cut, virtually on a par with the router.

A jigsaw really isn't the best too tool for the job, as I'm sure you'll testify too. Aside from the human error factor, the blades very often wander and undercut one side and the cut itself is never very clean, even with an acrylic cutting blade like I have.

 

[AK77]

[quote name='cybergibbons' date='13 January 2010 - 08:18 PM' timestamp='1263414115' post='2638747']
[quote name='Ed Green' date='13 January 2010 - 10:01 AM' timestamp='1263377095' post='2638209]
When I get around to it I will be having a new glass lid fit for my 35l arc tank - just a thought, if you want live plants you may want to buy a second arc pod light and line them up next to each other as I do - increases your WPG as they are only 11watt lights. If you do go for that option you will want to make the cut away twice as long as standard to accommodate their fat bases.
[/quote]

I really want to work out another way of mounting it to avoid the huge cutout, but I am still working on that.
[/quote]

I had an idea. Many vendors on eBay will cut the acrylic to size for you. I'm sure there must be someone in the US able/willing to do the same. All you need do then is get a small 5mm offcut of acrylic, to form a little notch/tab to affix the arcpod onto and solvent weld that on top. The replacement cover, would probably only need to be 3mm thick, but you could go to five to play it safe, just in case it flexes.