# My Betta Setup



## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Hi everyone,
I would like to share my aquarium set up with everyone to get some feedback on it and also to provide some ideas for people doing the same thing : ) I will be writing guides for the barracks and maybe (if I have time, college is keeping me on tip-toes) write blue prints for the stands.

I'm going out to build the sump tomorrow. It will (at least I want it to) fit right beneath the barracks. Does anyone have suggestions on the sump/outflow/inflow? Any suggestion/experience would be appreciated!

So this following is my set-up for my 10 gallons. The Betta in the cups will be filling the barracks within the next week (hopefully!). These daily water changes are really really tedious. The lower section is holding 20 gallons, I'm thinking of making 2 custom 60 gallon plexiglass tanks to fit in there. (Look at all the booze on the bottom >.> That's what my boyfriend needs to put up with me and my fish!!!)










Here are the barracks we recently put together. It had some huge leaks on the first try, so we glued it some more and lined it with silicone outside around. Crossing my fingers that it won't have another major leak!









Here's the stand holding the entire set up together. The horizontal beams aren't screwed in yet, so they're all over the place right now. The 20 gallons will go on the very bottom, and 10 gallons on the outside first rack. I was thinking about fitting a sump in the middle of the first rack (between two rows of 10 gallons). And yes it's empty right now, we purchased MDF boards to fit inbetween, but still have to spray paint them water-proof.









I will keep posting updates to this thread for anyone that's interested~

*The barracks design was implemented from a design BasementBetta made. I tweaked her design a little to make mine : ) Just wanted to give her credit!

*Stand was from a post I saw in another forum. Sadly I forgot the username, I will definitely mention him/her if I find it again!


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## Chachi (Sep 22, 2013)

Wow, that's awesome!!


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## BettaBoy51 (Nov 13, 2013)

OMG if I had that dude I would freak out man that's so nice hope it works out


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

I'm a little worried about my overflow holes, since I only have 3 small ones per partition :/ Hopefully its enough flow.


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## Lefitte (Oct 2, 2013)

Woah I'd love to see your progress! This looks amazing.


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## scootshoot (Oct 11, 2010)

Yea love threads like this that shows weekly, etc. progress of how the final product comes out! Keep this thread going for future updates!

Thanks for sharing with the community, looks awesome!


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Update:

Here's the MDF that I will be using to put the sump and barracks on. Spraypainted Satin White with a Clear Coating on both sides for waterproofing. It's drying right now 









This is the sump that we are working on. It's made out of 1/4" thick acrylic. It's being made out of scrap pieces, and we bought wayyy too much but the total cost of all the plastic for the sump was $30. And we have a lot of left overs to make fish tanks with : ) (like 5-6 5 gallons)










This is the compartment divider for the K1-Media. Letting the silicone around the mesh dry a bit before gluing the pieces together.


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## Crowntails (Feb 12, 2013)

Amazing! I can't wait to see it when it's all finished.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Here's the sump, mostly finished. The two egg crates will have algae scrubs draped over them. Middle compartment is for K1 and the two small compartments on the right are for mechanical filtration. (It's flipped on its side cause it's drying right now~










Ran into some major problems while using scrap pieces (can't ask for perfect when you ask for cheap stuff I guess :/) The pieces weren't exactly 90 degree angles since I was too lazy to recut all of them, meaning there's a decent sized gap on the outside wall









And here's my fix to it. *Crossing my fingers that it will not leak. Considering the sump is very low, water pressure shouldn't be a problem. And I filled the gap with Weld-on for now, and will cover again with silicone.


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## SorcerersApprentice (May 31, 2012)

Looking good!


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## Bettacrab (Jun 30, 2013)

If I were you , I would not be able to control my self. I had 2 bettas. Then I built betta barracks, I had lots of room in case I got more bettas. Then I immediately filled all the openings with new bettas


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

Looks great. My only advice is to be _extremely_ careful with quarantine and sick fish... One sick fish goes in the system and all of them are exposed and potentially ill.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Bettacrab said:


> If I were you , I would not be able to control my self. I had 2 bettas. Then I built betta barracks, I had lots of room in case I got more bettas. Then I immediately filled all the openings with new bettas


Man... my barracks aren't even finished yet and I have enough to fill up one.... Now that I'm building my first barracks I went overboard and "prepared" enough Betta for almost 2 barracks _._ I never believed people when they said Betta could be an addiction lol, now I certainly do!



MattsBettas said:


> Looks great. My only advice is to be _extremely_ careful with quarantine and sick fish... One sick fish goes in the system and all of them are exposed and potentially ill.


Yes I thought of that too. I was trying to think of a way to add a "medical filter" in the sump that will kill parasites/bacteria before the water returns to each condo, and have an activated carbon before that to take all the medicine out of the water. I doubt that's possible though considering most bacteria/parasites are pretty hardy :/

I've gotten into the habit of QT'ing all new fish for 2 weeks at least. I learned my lesson when a dozen of my Betta got sick with Ick : (


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Ready for water test. Cat in position!









Mechanical filter overflow









So there was quite a big leak on the bottom where two scrap pieces connected horizontally. (You can see the water marks on the cardboard) I forgot to put a safety piece on top of that one since its so thin :/ I'm going to attempt fixing it with a crap load of silicone. 

Luckily that's the only leak and should be an easy fix. Hopefully I'll have the entire system connected tomorrow!


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

So we finally managed to fix all the leaks. We connected the system and did a full run for the first time today and I'm really happy about the results! There are a couple unglued joints that are leaking since we're still tweaking it, but I think we're ready to go ahead and build the second barracks and connect it all together!

Here are some pictures:
















You can see the overflow waterlevel if you look close enough. It seems to be staying constant.









Here's how the overflow works.

One thing we noticed is that the waterlevel in the barracks actually goes to the top of the outflow holes, meaning that right now I only have 1/4" between the water level and the top of the barracks. I'm probably going to have to add lids to these barracks to keep the Betta from jumping out. (Breathing won't be a problem since the water will be aerated from the K1 compartment). We're still missing some components for the filter (like the air stones for K1, algae scrubbers, and some stuff from the bio filter). They're arriving Friday I believe. 

Another thing we noticed is that some of the compartments seem to be getting a little less water flow than the others o.o. I think it depends on how far we pushed the tubing into the pvc pipe so we'll have to adjust that too.

Any suggestions on the whole thing?


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## Tree (Sep 29, 2013)

Wait so below is a HUGE Filter of some sort? or does it clean the tanks without you having too? This is Amazing BTW =U


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

It's a sump, and yes it's basically a giant filter. I have different sizes of sponge, bio-media (non-fluidized and fluidized) in right now. The fluidized K1 takes aeration, so the water will be aerated as well. I'm looking to add in algae scrubbers at the back if possible, since they take out a ton of nitrates. Still have to do water changes even with this filter, just not as frequently~


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## Crowntails (Feb 12, 2013)

How big are each compartments?


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

The compartments in the barracks are 4" x 9.5" x 6", so about a gallon water per fish. Not sure how big the sump is since I made it out of scrap o.o. It's about 8" tall and 12" wide.


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

You can look into adding UV sterilization- it kills the vast majority of pathogens on contact, but there is no guarantee it will stop the spread of disease because in the end the fish are still sharing the same water. It may help slow or prevent it, though.


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## bettasareawesome (Jul 9, 2012)

It looks like your starting a petshop!


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## clementchee (Nov 26, 2013)

You must have spent a fortune!


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## rickey (Jul 7, 2013)

good job

r


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## Hallyx (Jun 11, 2011)

I'm impressed. A lot of thought and labor went into that. Just excellent.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

MattsBettas said:


> You can look into adding UV sterilization- it kills the vast majority of pathogens on contact, but there is no guarantee it will stop the spread of disease because in the end the fish are still sharing the same water. It may help slow or prevent it, though.


Good idea! It sounds pricey though o.o. I'll see if it's going to be cost-effective and maybe find some space to implement it. Though considering it's UV, it would need to be a UV proof compartment? I used to work with UV in an engineering workshop, and the safety regulations are ridiculous :/

The stand is about 80$ made from the cheapest 2x4 wood from Ace (it will hold 4 x 20G, 6x 10G, 2x 24 compartment 1G each barracks, the sump, and space at the top for random stuff), and the barracks cost about $100. The $100 was cause I was inexperienced with how plexiglass is sold. For the next barracks I'm going to work out something with scrap + half sheet prices to try and cut the price down a lot. A lot of the money went into buying tools (a good drill and drill bits, clamps, screws (tons of screws!) etc.) I would've preferred something to sand/cut the plexiglass myself but mehhh. Airline and PVC piping is pretty cheap, the stop valves and connections are a bit more pricey, about $15 in total right now. The material for the sump was actually really cheap, about $5 since I made it out of scrap. After I'm done I'll do a quick price break down if I find the time for it.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

So I'm looking at a Sunsun 13W UV Sterilizer right now, seems like the price is ok. It's 40$ and comes with a replacement bulb. Only problem is that it's 12 inches high and the space for my sump is exactly 12" tall. I'm going to order it and see if I can fit it in the system somehow. It has an in-built pump so I could add separate reservoir which is awesome. Maybe I'll manage to stick one of the 10 gallons down there somehow >.<!

It seems to be able to treat parasites at least. I've had an ich nightmare before so I think the 40$ is well spent. Thanks for the suggestion!

*Edit: Hmm seems like there's no way to slow down the flow rate of this UV pump. It's an inbuilt 211 GPH pump >.> I wonder if I can stuff the intake a little to slow it down? Any ideas? If worse comes to worse i'll just introduce a little headheight to it or exchange the pumping unit I guess.


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

Great setup! If I may ask how wide is your plexiglass?


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

I'm using 1/8" thick plexiglass (extruded). Each of the dividers acts like a brace so there's no worry about bowing.

Working on my second set of barracks now so, hopefully they'll be ready this weekend. So busy with finals and all : (


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

Great! I'm thinking about setting up some barracks but on a very small scale. Only housing 20 fish or so and only one 80" rack with two pumps pumping water through both sides of the he PVC pipes that feed water back in to the Containers


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

Or possibly having two 3 foot racks with two pumps feeding water into each PVC pipe that feeds back into the containers.. Planning it and already have the amount of plexi I need, the dimensions, an isometric drawing.. I think it's isometric, lol... But were planning to purchase everything very soon and start building over the Christmas break. It'll only be about 23 - 25 gallons which is why it's only housing 20 fish. Did you get your supplies from Lowes? I'm not sure where I'm going to get mine. Probably lowes and possibly Home Depot


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

I got all my plexi stuff from TAP plastics. Most Home Depots didn't seem to be equipped with plexiglass cutting stuff, and their employees aren't really specialized in handling plastic. Home Depot was also very expensive in my area. 

I think most stores will try to charge you $4.35 ish per square foot to buy pre-cut pieces. I went into TAP plastics so much that they started knowing me and they were nice enough to let me buy my plastic at the half-sheet price (around $3.70 per square foot) and do the cuttings because we were regulars. I liked them because I never worked with plastic and they were really helpful in explaining how to glue, how to cut, and even drilled holes for us in scrap pieces. 

Lowes would probably be a better bet than Home Depot, check around for prices to make sure what's cheapest in your area. (Don't ask for full sheet or half sheet prices unless you know they will do custom cuts free for you) The free cuts they include is for transport purposes only usually. The material cost for plexiglass (extruded) for one of my barracks (24 condos, ~1 gallon each) was about $130 for the first set, and $100 for the second set. I think it's a considerable price difference. They also gave us extra pieces sometimes  I'd suggest TAP plastics if there's one near you.

If you ask them to drill the holes they will probably charge about 80 cents per hole, I suggest letting them drill big holes (1/2" and above) and do the smaller ones yourself if you have a reliable drill. The big holes are a pain and everytime I drilled I thought the plexi was going to crack (thank god it didn't!). You'll need Weld-on (about $10 along with the applicator) and I would also suggest silicone in case there are small leaks you have to fix.

I have my racks double-sided to try and get more condos out for less price xD Check out BasementBetta's side (Google search for BasementBetta New Condo). I followed mostly what she did (She got her stuff from Lowes for cheap, no idea how cause the Lowes I have here was quite pricy )


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

Also. How large should the sump be and does is matter how much water is draining into the sumo and how much is being pumped out? Will they just even themselves out or what? I'm planning having two 36 by 8 by 10 inch racks now which is almost exactly 25 gallons.. Would a 5 gallon sump with two 80 GPH pumps suffice? I'm planning about a gallon per fish so twenty to twenty five fish

Thanks for the advice! Sadly we don't have a tap plastics in our area so I'll probably just be using the 30 by 36 sheets and having 3-4 of them and a lot of 8 by 10 inch sheets.. Of course I'll have them cut it so if it's ruined guess who's gotta pay. Lol


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

It depends how high up your barracks are compared to the sump. Pumps loose a lot of GPH depending on the height. So if they're at the same level 80 GPH should be enough, but I suggest going for more just in case. I believe my pump right now is rated around 400 GPH, but it does have to supply 48 gallons worth of barracks, one of which will be 2 feet above the sump. You can try to get the pump at a store where they accept returns/exchanges in case things don't work out. I got my pump from ace (it's meant for ponds) and if it didn't work out I would've exchanged for a smaller/bigger one and they would've refunded the price difference.

Also I have a valve (I can't remember the names for all the different valves) which you can turn to restrict flow. I basically went by trial and error to adjust the valve to a point where the inflow and outflow was constant. (We did have a couple small spills!) 

Honestly if you are only planning one barracks, and aren't planning any expansions in the near future, you could try to integrate a filtration system into your overflow instead of using a sump. That way you won't have to worry about the pump's power loss due to head height and it would conserve space too. Plus with 25 gallons, making a sump might just be extra work. 

My sump right now is 15-gallon ish. The main thing you need to watch out for is that in case your pump fails, that the return from your barracks won't overflow your sump. The size itself also depends on what media you're using since some media is more efficient than others. My bf had a site that calculated media amounts for you, I'll ask him for it when he gets back. You also need to make sure that your pump does not suck the sump dry, so the bigger the sump the better. 

As far as I know, if you buy their sheets and asked them to cut for you, they'll just have to keep cutting the sheets until you get the pieces you asked for. As long as they agreed to cut it, any mess-up should be on them. It would be different if you brought your own sheet and told them to cut (though I assume they would refuse to cut it in that case). I initially wanted to make my barracks out of glass (don't do it >.>), I gave the guy my measurements and he wasn't sure if he'd be able to cut those dimensions without ruining the glass. The glass cracked, and he just told me he couldn't do those dimensions for me. I felt pretty bad about them having to waste a piece of glass though, but I myself didn't pay anything.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Oh and, they only even themselves out if you're not maxing your overflow holes (which would cause water to spill out of your barracks) and if the return isn't more than the pump (this case you only have to worry about if the pump fails). So a ball valve will fix all that (my bf just told me the name for it!). 

The media calculator is on www.diyfishkeepers.com under calculators. He also wanted me to tell you that the calculator is just a rough estimate and for Betta barracks the amount should be doubled due to our high fish to gallon ratio.


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

Thanks for all the advice!! I'll have to research the overflow ones.? Have heard of em but never really understood... Mine will probably me a maximum of 2 feet away from the pump but I'm thinking about other elevating the pump and sump or the barracks.. I'm still deciding which I want but I still have a while to choose.. Sooooo.. Thanks for your help! Do you have any links to how you made yours or was it basically just BB.. I'll take a closer look right now. Lol.. Didn't really even take a good look at the link >.< sorry


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Basically I followed BBs design, but changed it so the overflow is in the middle and not at the end to accommodate more fish per plexiglass used.

She has a pretty good description of her overflow (I think she did have an extra piece though, I'm not too sure why). Basically the water from each of the 1G condos flows through holes drilled at the top of each condo, into the overflow. This way you do not need a pump in every single condo to drain water out of it. The holes control the water height of each condo and it prevents each condo to be sucked dry of water.

I'm eventually going to write a guide for all this, not anytime soon though. Finals keeping me so damn busy. I can send you my Skype/whatsapp info if you want. I need someone to share betta knowledge with : P hehe


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## hopeful fish (May 29, 2013)

You said earlier that you were planning on putting lids on, and only have 1/4 inch of space between the lid and the water. Just make sure that the betas can get to fresh air, or they will drown.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Thanks for the reminder~

The water will be aerated from the K1 compartment (25LPM), and if there's still need for them to reach the surface, my lid won't cover the entire barracks since I need openings to feed/clean/inflow tubing as well without having to move lids around all day.

I grew up with the SI system, so my inch estimations might be totally off >.< There's space for them to reach air though


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## hopeful fish (May 29, 2013)

it's great they'll have air, just remember that it is more important for them to reach the surface than to have aerated water. They breathe with a labyrinth organ, like a lung, instead of like normal fish in water.


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

I'm pretty sure the labyrinth organ is simply an adaptation for lower O2 levels in water, but that they can respirate through the gills like any other fish... Leave them airspace regardless, though...


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Mhm, there's speculation that the gills aren't as adequate as regular fish, but its a speculation. They can definitely get some type of oxygen through water.


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## SorcerersApprentice (May 31, 2012)

I had a friend who was floating her new betta in the tank overnight to make sure the cup warmed up before she released him. I guess the seal on the cup wasn't airtight and it filled up overnight and he was dead in the morning  She said he seemed healthy beforehand so she figured he had drowned.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Yes but that's only in the case if the water wasn't aerated, any fish will drown if the water has no oxygen in it.


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## rickey (Jul 7, 2013)

Breathing air has primarily evolved for seasonally variable water, where the water's oxygen concentration often declines seasonally with summer heating and with falling water levels in the dry season. Believe me Southeast Asia is dry only by comparison with the rainy season. 

R


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Update on the barracks.

Finished the second set of barracks, the glue applicator was giving me huge trouble cause it was clogging up. The drilling/gluing took around 3 hours in total. I took tons of step by step pictures and will post them after my finals are done. Most of the spray bars for the second system are almost ready to go too. Waiting on the glue and silicone to dry and will hook up the entire system in a couple days! *Excited. I have several extra heaters on the way to put in the sump as well, they should arrive latest by Tuesday. 

*Sump. Having some trouble with the K1 compartment. K1 is all stuck to the outflow and restricting the water from the pump, it's not major though so I'll see if it'll deny the pump water or if it'll fix itself. Also need a more powerful airpump to run those air currents >.< 2 Tetra 60s aren't cutting the job. 

Rickey that's one interesting looking fish in your profile lol!


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

First betta is in the barracks! 

We cycled the barracks starting on thanksgiving with fish food. Didn't check parameters yet but we figure its a lot better than the ones in the cup. 

Having a little problem with surface film, possibly cause I mixed stresscoat and prime. The flow in each condo isn't enough to break the surface film. Is it harmful if the Betta inhales it while breathing?

Had a lot of trouble heating this thing up too :/ Used one 150W Eheim in the sump and another 150W in the overflow. It took about 2-3 hours for the temperature to start raising. I'm still slowly adjusting it, but it's pretty constant around 78 degF right now. 

Here he is : ) We're looking to add anubias in each condo, though it'll probably take forever to grow enough Anubia to do so.


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## sandybottom (Nov 29, 2012)

there is a temporary solution to give the fish some cover,without breaking the bank. you can take a large black garbage bag,cut it into 6"x4" rectangles.next tie a knot at one end,then cut thin strips up to the knot from the other end. they are easy to sterilize. i saw this method used at a fishery.very similar to cotton spawning mops. you may want to tie a stone or a weight in the knot to keep it from drifting and clogging up your overflow holes.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

I have the material for the lids, just have to cut them into size.

1/8" scrap plexi is really cheap and suits the purpose well : )


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