Octo-proof lid ideas - help!

A

Animal Mother

Membership Expired
I'm going a different route this time, trying to make a lid that isn't ugly.

I need help figuring out how I'm going to keep the lid secure and locked down on the top. What I've got is a 23 1/8 x 23 1/8" piece of 1/4 inch acrylic, fits snugly into the grooves of the tank top.
 
Hmmm... How about a wooden hood, one of the ones with a hinged lid...

Attach some small pieces of wood to the inside of the hood facing down, so that when the hood is lowered, the wooden pieces you've added rest on top of the acrylic tank lid, weighing it down. When you need to work on the tank, you lift open the wooden hood, releasing the pressure the wooden struts is giving, and lift the acrylic sheet out of place...
 
IMG_3135.jpg
alt="">
 
Hmmmm...

This would take some fabrication skills, but make a pair of acrylic "straps" that go across the tank, down the ledge, and hook under the rim, so that they can be slip on and off, and when on hold the acrylic in place?

Shouldn't be TOO ugly, and still provide easy access to the tank for you...

Still brain storming... :)
 
Picture frame the top panel with a 1/2 wide acrylic strip thick enough to stand proud of the tank's rim.

Super glue a small threaded rod (3/8" - 1/4" rod, - height depends on mirror clip (below)) to the tank rim. Probably need 3 on each side - 1 centered, other 2 1" or so from the corner.

Put a mirror clip on the threaded rod and a wingnut above the clip.

Tighten the wingnut to hold the panel down.

You will want a side-mount clip - HD and Lowe's decorative plastic stuff - something like: http://tinyurl.com/6zmmw9

Will probably need to file off the inner corners to let the clip spin (I would mount the clip as close to the edge of the lid as possible).

Might need some sort of standoff (hollow tubing) between the clip and wingnut so the nut is above the top of hold-down arm.
 
I was thinking kind of the same idea in wood however. I was thinking endcaps, like narrow boxes that fit over each end and then use a offset cam lever to press down on a thin wood strip to apply downward tension on the plexi.
 
check out what this guy did with a window screen kit, i did this a few years and it was really easy and inexpensive. http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=50579
 
An Octo would pass through that netting in seconds.

http://www.splashvision.com/video/3200_Octopus-Escape-Artist.html
 
I think I'm going to start out as simple as possible. Velcro. On all 4 sides of the acrylic and the rim. I'm not very handy with the engineering skills.

Although I am interested in the frame idea. Who wants to build it for me? :p
 
Shoot me a pm dale and we can look into it. I was thinking about making a screen , then adding a sheet of plex ontop till the octo gets bigger, then you can take the screen off when he is to large to squeeze out.
 
@Animal Mother wrote:
I think I'm going to start out as simple as possible. Velcro. On all 4 sides of the acrylic and the rim. I'm not very handy with the engineering skills. Although I am interested in the frame idea. Who wants to build it for me? :P said:
Just straight pieces glued (WeldOn) around the edges of the piece you have on the top of the tank. Mitered corners would be cleaner looking, but simple straight butt corners would be ok.

As I understand them, even very large Octos can expel the majority of water in their bodies and pass through openings much smaller than one would expect.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top