Don't overheat it too much or the plastic will get a bunch of bubbles. As it begins to give, keep applying heat and fold the plastic gently. The plastic is bent by heating it over a propane torch. I don't remove it to clean it, I simply bend a flexible brush to fit, and work it back and forth. I have a couple of pieces of black acrylic, and I've been thinking about making a shield to lay over it to help reduce the algae thing, only because it is a pain. If you could somehow build some type of shade to keep your lights off of it, it might help. Ideally, you'd want to build it out of black acrylic, which costs a little bit more (a few dollars at most), but if it is black, you can't tell if something is in it, if it is losing suction, or anything. I clean it about once a month, and pull out some thick matted hair algae that definitely restricts the flow. The BAD thing is that it loves to grow algae in it, and it is rather annoying to clean out. Being clear, I see when a fish or a crab or a snail climbs in (all three have), and I've seen copepods walking around in there (which was cool). I built mine out of clear acrylic, and I can see if any problems develop and make sure all is well. Acrylic is harder, and you can buy various thicknesses.įor an overflow box, 1/8" is ideal. Plexiglas ages, turns yellow, gets brittle, and cracks. You want acrylic, not plexiglas - the stuff Home Depot sells. call one up that seems near you, and ask if they sell AcryLite to the public. You need to break out the Yellow Pages and look up "plastics".
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