DIY Project: Rimless Tank Cover

EVAPORATION. 

This winter weather has been taking away all of the water in my tank (I say "winter" but really... I live in Southern California...I really shouldn't complain). My sister's fiance turns on the heating system in the house to keep the house warm at night. (Too warm in my opinion! I am sweating bullets when I wake up in the morning). But because of the dry heat, it causes the water in my tank to evaporate at an alarming rate! In one week I loose about 1.5 cm of water from the top of my tank. So, to combat the rate of evaporation, I had to create a cover for the tank. I'm not the best at DIY so give me a break about how it looks OK?!?! Maybe I'll give it a second go. But for now this will do. 

Purchased some cover "clips" off of amazon.com for about $8. They're not really clips. They are more like slips. I thought I purchased 5mm clips, but they turned out to be 6mm, but it works anyways. The slips don't fit perfectly on the glass and kinda hang down a little (boooo! dislike!) but it works to hold up the acrylic sheet I purchased from homedepot. 

I bought a large 32x20inch sheet of acrylic. I mainly purchased this big sheet just in case I messed up (which I did). At first I started cutting the acrylic using an acrylic scorer. Basically, you score the plastic sheet in the same area until the plastic is thin enough to break. It didn't really work out the way I wanted it to. So instead I grabbed a hacksaw, and used my ultra DIY skills and just cut along the line I drew out on the acrylic. I continued to use the ugly acrylic that I broke wrong because I didn't want to waste any acrylic. It looks uneven because of the bad breaking after scoring, not because of my sawing skills! I didn't care to make it fit perfectly to the shape of my tank because I figured it was easier to cut a rectangular shape than a bowfront. Plus I needed something quick and easy to put on my tank ASAP. I did, however, remember to cut out a section for the filter! 

After cutting everything up, I placed the clips on the glass, and laid the acrylic that I cut out on top. Looks like this!

Hopefully the water won't evaporate as much. Plus, now that I know I can just hacksaw the acrylic, I might try again to cut the sheet to fit the top of the aquarium better. All I need is to find the time to do it! Busy busy!