sealing top for eel

[ivy2dw7]

I am really starting to want a ghost eel in my 39g but my main problem is that my DIY canopy has a big opening in the back for the filter and on one side to fit the protein skimmer. The pics show it all. Right now I have just a fuzzy dwarf lion, a pencil urchin, and a chocolate chip star in the tank with about 40-45lbs of LR and 25-30lbs of LS. My skimmer can easily handle a lion and ghost eel, I just don't really know how to go about sealing the tank off to make it eel-safe. I don't want to give my cats an expensive snack!! I'm also thinking of getting one more fish, such as a maroon clown and that'd be in for fish. I'd also like one or two more urchins (one of my lfs has some gorgeous long spines in but I'm a little afraid) and maybe some other kind of invert that would be safe with my lion. So what can I do about sealing my tank to get a ghost eel?

 

[ivy2dw7]

 

[my way]

Do you have any sign shops or sign suppliers in your area? If so you could purchase a sheet of "Coroplast", it looks like a sheet of corrugated cardboard only it is made of
thin plastic. It cuts easily with scissors or an exacto. You could use that to make panels to fill in your voids. It comes in colors (I would suggest black). My cost for a 4'x8' sheet is about $11.00 To make a 90 degree bend you just cut through one side of the sheet in the same direction of the corrugation and bend it. It's super light weight and rigid enough to do the job. Iwould use construction paper to"trace the outines of what you need to cut around (overflow boxes skimmers etc.) then transfer that to the coroplast.

 

[ivy2dw7]

How tight of a seal does it have to be? Does every little gap have to be filled in?

 

[my way]

The tighter you make it the less chance it will ever get out. If you read enough posts you will see it happens more than you would think. Sometimes our guys just feel the need to go exploring. One more note I meant for you to use this vertically along the back and sides inside your canopy to build a surround and not to block the light going into the tank.

 

[jon321]

As a side note, I would watch that pencil urchin with your cc starfish. My pencil urchin ate TWO cc starfish in the matter of a week. They were fine together for about 3 months, then suddenly one morning the urhcin was ontop of the starfish and 4 legs and 1/2 the disk was missing.
Jon

 

[ivy2dw7]

Hmm, thanks for letting me know. They seem to be doing fine together so far, they've been in there for about two months, put in at the same time. I'll keep a watch on them though and I have another home the CC can go to if problems start. Anyways, how does a ghost eel and a marine betta sound with my fuzzy dwarf in this tank? That is if I'm able to seal my tank in a way that the eel can't get out.

 

[tjake68]

my snf eal jumped out last week hes 8-10 he went under tank stand i dont know how my cats didnt get him amazingly enough when i woke up i found him dried up and all sticky i put him in tank and he swam like he never missed a beat its 2 weeks later and hes doing great lesson learnd seal your tank i got some fiberglass screen and cut it and seeled every space doesnt look super great but not that bad its not to great for evaporation ethier but i have skimmer 2extra hang on filters and a canisterfilter all going in back thers was alot of cuts and spaces but its working great and the inconvinoce of quicker evaporation is made up by having a really cool snfeal but if not seeled it will eventually get out and u might not be as lucky as i was lol by the way screen was like 200 for 3 feet

 

[tjake68]

my snf eal jumped out 2 weeks ago hes 8-10 he went under tank stand i dont know how my cats didnt get him amazingly enough when i woke up i found him dried up and all sticky i put him in tank and he swam like he never missed a beat its 2 weeks later and hes doing great lesson learnd seal your tank i got some fiberglass screen and cut it and seeled every space doesnt look super great but not that bad its not to great for evaporation ethier but i have skimmer 2extra hang on filters and a canisterfilter all going in back thers was alot of cuts and spaces but its working great and the inconvinoce of quicker evaporation is made up by having a really cool snfeal but if not seeled it will eventually get out and u might not be as lucky as i was lol by the way screen was like 2 bucks for 3 feet

 

[my way]

My snowflake did the same thi g recently at about the same size and about the same time frame he went through about 3' of PVC to get into the fuge and found his way out of there. He's doing fine now. They must have been twins. Is there a spellcheck I can't find on this board, I'm tired of editing all of my posts, I'm a lousy typist!

 

[ivy2dw7]

Would a leaf scorpion go well with my fuzzy dwarf in this size of a tank? I'm still considering the eel if I can find a way to trace an outline around all the skimmer parts. So it'd be my fuzzy, ghost eel and a leaf scorpion..? Any thoughts? On another site it says they go well with other "passive fish" like themselves but that they're semi-aggressive so I don't know how compatible it'd be with my fuzzy in a 39g. Then again there is someone on this site that has a lion and rogue scorpion in the same tank and they seem to be doing fine.