needing to find a place that carries acrylic tops for my 125

I have checked out homedepot and they either have acrylic that is crazy expensive(more than $100 dollars to cover the top) or cheap, thin, and really flimsy acrylic sheets. The top of my tank has two 12" x 24" slots that i would like to cover. I am losing some water to evaporation without them being covered. Plus, I don't want my lights to short circuit. When I got the tank, it had an XL wood hood on top of it, but I am going sans hood. Has anyone on here found places that carry cheap acrylic sheets? I would hate to spend a ton more on the tank cover than the actual tank itself.

Any and all ideas will be appreciated, and not mocked
thanks,
lloyd378

Glass tops like used on glass tanks an option? These are pretty inexpensive if ordered on-line and glass can be cut to size and does not bow when used as a top, whereas flat acrylic usually does.

Oh yeah, didn't think of glass..... feeling like a bit of idiot for even asking now. Thanks for the suggestion

Try denny's pet world in kirkland, I think I saw some acrylic lids last time I was there.

Glass does work, but if this is something that you wish to look good, then you need to get some made for it. Any type of acrylic regardless of thickness, will bow from the heat and moisture.

I just ordered custom lids for 2 of my tanks. They ran me $100 per tank, but my lids are 24" x 24", and 25" x 29", much larger than what you need. They are made of lexan, and are less than 1/8" thick, and will never bow.

Lexan is the only way to go!!

I agree, lexan is the way to go.. It will cost you in the begining but worth it if you ask me.

I have acrylic on my 300 and i have to flip them weekly because of the bowing..

Thing is it won't cost you. A piece of acrylic 1/4" at home depot will cost more and look like crap.

Home Depot has sheets of Lexan too, my store carries them.

A 12" x 24" piece runs just over a $14. You could put the glass top edge extenders (most of us have some of those laying around from our glass tops that we didn't need to use) onto the side edges or back edges or something just to make sure you have a good fit as your opening is 12" x 24" also and you need a little overhang so as not to have the piece fall in

or

You could buy the 72" x 36" piece (at a little over $100) and cut it to fit

Just another option



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Or have them custom cut for your tank, and you wont have to do anything but put them on, for $100,

I ended up with two sheets of lexan for a grand total of $18 dollars. Fits like a glove! Thanks everyone.


on a side note, an employee at the spanaway home-depot named Dave is selling a couple of tanks 55g and a smaller one (the only problem, in my opinion, is that they come with a five foot corn snake.) I told him i'd pass the word on as long as he passed the word on about wafishbox and the helpfulness of this forum to his costumers that were coming in there for fish supplies too.

Nice. Where did you get the Lexan? Home Depot?

Yes! they had tons of precut sizes 12"X 24", 24" X 18" and one larger and smaller size than those.

Looks like Im in the same spot. I just got a 72g SeaClear acrylic bowfront and it has two 7" x 14" openings that need to be covered. Just for fun I contacted the manufacturer and was given a contact that got me the price. The '#4 Access Cover' as its called is $39 each, so $78 + shipping!  

Needless to say Im going to Home Depot and getting some Lexan and make my own.

A lil late but thought I would though in my $.02.
I actually went both ways glass/acrylic. Acrylic does bow, and my tank is a custom size. So i picked up 2 glass Versa Tops that would span the length (29") then fabricated the last 6 inches the glass didn't cover (in the back), there is no bowing of the plastic. This also allowed me to cut holes, and notches where i wanted them. I like using Versa tops because of the thin glass and hinges.