My foxface jumped into my overflow a few weeks ago, and I had a screen top(home made). I think I spooked him lol. I recently purchased the screen top kit and am very happy with the look and ease of assembly (some metal cutting required)
After using different DIY mesh lids, the options that are provided by D-D jump guard pro kits are the way to go IMO. They offer a lot of different cutout options (as well as precut options) to navigate around lights and other things which may hang off a rimless tank. They automatically come with the preferred black netting as well as the corner clips that Ryan likes in the kit. Also, D-D sells a food door. Worth a look for BRS to pick up to sell
Gah! Wish I’d seen this before last weekend when I made my 6’ screen top. Made at least 3 “mistakes” but I’m resolving one right now. Got the Neat Feed portal in my cart.
I have the Red Sea kit, but I also fixed the screen door to my backyard, so I still have that screen door spline roller. I guess it's time for me to dig through that pile to look for it.
The spline that comes with the Red Sea kit is way too thick thick which leads to issue #13 pushing too hard and cutting the screen. The thinner spline from the hardware store is plenty to keep fish in……unless you have a sport fish tank full of tarpon and dorado. Epic high five if you do!
I've lost one of my favorite Blennys by not having one and haven't had time to build one for my new tank yet... My 6 line wrasse ended up down the overflow... Thankfully I use filter sock silencers and kept her from going into the sock so I heard her flopping around. Neat should make a longer port option so you cna do broadcast feeding... Would be perfect.
for get the feeding port i have hydraulic arm in back left corner that push the lid up and down cost like 12 bucks on amazon. the lids attached to the arm and is ridged enough i only need to use one
i like to use the birdneting but I use two layers so the actual size of the hole is now 1/4 inch. its cheaper for me to doint that way and I find it makes the whole thing stronger
@@BRStv does it? Prove me wrong with your par meter, and don't use tinted glass, or UV reflecting plastic. it's cheap and you don't make money off it that's why you don't endorse it 😁 The American way.
@@joshstafford4410 Sorry, that answer could've used a bit more explaining. The main reason glass or plastic lids aren't as popular in the saltwater hobby over the freshwater hobby are for a few reasons. -First, many reefers struggle with low pH in their tanks and one of the first steps to combatting that is to increase the oxygen exchange in the water (releasing more CO2). Although using full glass/plastic lids does decrease evaporation, it can be a trade off for lower pH since the lids also prevent oxygen exchange. -Second is about temperature. Maybe not as critical to all reefers, but for some who do struggle with rising temps (especially in the summer) one of the best ways to reduce temp is to increase evaporation. That can be difficult to do with lids that are naturally blocking evaporation. -As it pertains to PAR, using lids can affect the PAR entering the tank in a couple of different ways. Obviously with freshly cleaned and maintained lids, this isn't going to be a major problem, because you're right...light will get through just fine. However over a few days or weeks salt creep and mineral deposits can begin to build up underneath the glass or plastic lid which can and will diminish the amount of PAR entering the tank. This becomes more of a concern if a reefer isn't as diligent about keeping the lids clean, because over time let's say that buildup reduces PAR by 30%.... as soon as you clean the lids the PAR jumps back up by 30%. I think most reefers would agree that a constant flux of reduced PAR, then high PAR, then reduced PAR.....etc is an unstable environment where the corals are continually trying to adapt. In a hobby that preaches stability, this is far from stable.
I tested this years ago over on RC with an ATI Sunpower. You would have to dig through hundreds of pages to find it. It is in The T5 Q&A Thread somewhere. ATI uses a super clear acrylic for their shields and it blocks 3-6% of the light straight from the factory. By the time it got some salt spray on it, it lost close to 10%. By the end of the experiment I had lost over 30% of the light. Cleaning the shields on your lights has a massive effect on PAR. So we took those numbers and then tested glass tops on a tank. The numbers were almost identical through the whole test. If I remember correctly, we lost close to 8-10% with clean glass alone. Acrylic is more transparent than standard glass. We then had a user (in Europe I believe) that had a starfire glass shield cut for his ATI because the acrylic would sag in the middle. He had a larger loss of light than the acrylic shield from day one. Glass lids can absolutely have a place especially if you have serious humidity issues but they are way more work than they are worth.
Thinking about setting up a 75 war 125 in my basement. I feel like it tends to be more dusty than any other areas of the house. When do you go with the screen top versus some kind of plexi top
Thinking of buying this kit. Have a Marineland 265g 7 feet with 2 euro braces and a canopy. Have glass lids currently but I feel like I'll get more light and won't have to clean the glass lids anymore. Will it make a difference?
The Reefer 3XL 900 has a full canopy-like setup, so no worries about jumpers in that particular case. Our other tanks do have screen tops, although we sometimes remove them for filming.
The easiest way is to just build the top so that it's 1/2" short from front to back. This way, you'll have a very slight gap towards the back of the tank where you can run all of your cords.
@@BRStv yep it was the 1/8th netting... found him on the floor the next morning. then his friend tried to do it, luckily I was home and actually witnessed the dart fish jump.
A clothing steamer will shrink the netting perfectly! No flame possible. You just start farther away then close the distance. IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL YOU WILL MELT IT. That is with any heat source.
Unfortunately, these kits are not great for curved tanks like a bow front. Custom might be a good option. There are quite a few companies out there that build incredible custom screen tops.
The white screen has issues, the press-in tool cuts it up and the material is bad. I love BRS but this screen sucks and the post been blocked on Facebook stating as such.
I have thought about putting one of these on my 90 gallon. It would probably be better just getting 2 and replacing the glass tops with them. Are these hard to put together?
A BRS investigates on that would be really interesting! From what we've seen some users do on forums like R2R, there is minimal par difference between the "clear" and black netting. Check out this thread: www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-case-for-black-screen-tops.537815/
I wouldn't suggest to rely on a canister filter for flow. If flow is what you're looking for then a powerhead/wavemaker is a better option. That said, if you don't have any other filtration on the tank, the canister filter is actually a solid choice as you can run mechanical, biological, and chemical filtration all in one unit.
Lost a corris wrasse yesterday that I had for years. He made it through a hole in the screen that looks smaller than his width. He was about 4" long and had orange and green stripes on his face, bummer.
For a standard 75 gallon, the 4 foot screen top kit will do the trick. It'll include enough frame and screen for you to build two screen tops, since 75 gallon tanks normally have a center brace. www.bulkreefsupply.com/diy-aquarium-screen-top-kits-for-rimmed-tanks-1-4-netting.html
Can you please discuss how to use the Neat Aquatics rimless corners while breaking up a larger top into two smaller tops without a gap between. Thanks!
Has anyone gotten the black screen and been able to get it to work? I got the red sea kit and the black screen. I can put the clear screen in with zero issue. The black breaks at the bend where the rubber holds it in no matter what I do. Please tell me how to do it. So far the black screen is a complete waste of money. 😕
The number of corners in our DIY kit will depend on if you go with the rimless or rimmed tank screen top kit. If you have a rim, we often assume that there will be a center brace and you'll need extra corners. If you have a rimless tank, then there is no center brace and only 4 corners are needed. If you didn't get everything that you should have in your kit, please give our customer service team a call and we'll make it right!
Corner tanks and bow front tanks are definitely a challenge. For those, a custom cut top is usually the best available option. There are some companies out there that make stunning custom acrylic screen net frames!
