Hello I am having a hard time finding a mesh screen for my 80 gallon aquarium

[Xhero]

I have a 80 gallon aquarium that I want to turn into a reptile enclosure. I went to petsmart and they only sell 50 gallon screen mesh lids . Does anyone know where I can get a proper lid for my tank that fits right . The glass canopy is 48x18 but the glass has a gap. So I'm not sure exactly what size lid I need. ...Plz take a look at the pictures of the aquarium and the measurement.. not sure if I did the measurements right ether plz help( please excuses the dirty tank I still need to clean it up and remove the rest of the sand)

[David0408]

Why not make one? There has to be YouTube videos out there. I just bought a tank without a lid so I may be making one myself. Can’t be that hard.

[chairman]

A 48x18 aquarium should be a 75 gallon aquarium. You can measure the outside diameter of the tank and compare it to a reference chart to get the actual tank volume. That might help your search.

Screen lids are slightly harder to make than you might think. The commercial lids are steel screen welded to a steel frame. (They also require clips to attach them to the aquarium frame.) You REALLY need to secure your screen material to your frame or your snake will push its way right out of the cage. Especially active species like corns, kings, carpet pythons, etc.

Creating a solid lid with a couple cutouts for ventilation will be a lot more manageable. And will trap heat/humidity better as well. Most hardware stores will cut 1/4" acrylic sheets to size for you if you bring the measurements with you. And you can screw screen door clips right into a tank frame to secure a lid like that. (Be mindful of the screws you use, you may need to pre-drill the holes and use bolts/nuts to avoid sharp edges.)

[David0408]

Solid lid with cutouts! Yeah, that sound way easier than making a screen. Why is it so hard to find a sliding screen? Everything is a screen lid. Solid lid it is! Thanks.

[chairman]

Most commercially available screen is for deterring insects from entering windows. The screens themselves are made of vinyl or thin aluminum. The screens are great at stopping mosquitos but don't necessarily hold up to pushy snakes. They do make pet screen, designed to keep dogs from tearing up screen doors quickly, but the material is rather expensive.

What you'd actually want to use is hardware cloth but it is very hard to find a fine mesh hardware cloth that is coated to protect a snake from cutting itself when it rubs up against the wire.

I've found that plastic gutter guards work reasonably well for screen cutouts. The gutter guards have a hard plastic mesh combined with a vinyl screen. They're also rather affordable. They are not the prettiest in the world, but you can mount them inside the cage to keep them out of sight a bit.

[David0408]

Most commercially available screen is for deterring insects from entering windows. The screens themselves are made of vinyl or thin aluminum. The screens are great at stopping mosquitos but don't necessarily hold up to pushy snakes. They do make pet screen, designed to keep dogs from tearing up screen doors quickly, but the material is rather expensive.

What you'd actually want to use is hardware cloth but it is very hard to find a fine mesh hardware cloth that is coated to protect a snake from cutting itself when it rubs up against the wire.

I've found that plastic gutter guards work reasonably well for screen cutouts. The gutter guards have a hard plastic mesh combined with a vinyl screen. They're also rather affordable. They are not the prettiest in the world, but you can mount them inside the cage to keep them out of sight a bit.

I’m sorry I don’t mean to hijack this thread. Having said that, I think Im just going to purchase a 4x2x2 APcages enclosure. Any recommendations on the options? White or black? Sliding glass door vs swinging plastic etc? Thanks.