DIY Tank Cover Lid

[tomdominer]

Hey chaps,

New to the forum and I have a question.

I moved into a house near Nottingham a few years ago and inherited a DIY koi pond from the previous owner. In the past few years I've managed to just about revert engineer the pond & filter's inner workings, but it's been hard and usually results in me being covered in fish poo. Anyway, the housing that surrounds the DIY filter is made of wood and disintegrating due to the fantastic weather we've been having. The Lid has seen the worst damage, and I was looking for a replacement for it? I was hoping I could perhaps order a plastic lid that would fit over the housing and pop that on, thus avoiding any woodwork and / or construction. The housing lid needs to be around 116cm x 76cm in size to cover the base.

Can anyone recommend me something to use as a lid? Perhaps a large water storage tank lid, or something else? Am I best to construct my own?

Please help chaps!

 

[Mmathis]

Welcome from Nottingham [sounds like a neat place!]

Do you have any photos of what you have now? Maybe if we can see it, it will spark ideas.

 

[Waterbug]

Here in the US we have HardieBacker, a fairly light cement board. I use it for skimmer and filter covers. For wide applications I would rip down some pressure treated wood to like 1"x1" or 2"x2" and attach to the underside to stiffen the board. Cheap, easy, can be painted or fake rocks made to cover.

Another choice, a lighter choice, is to make a wood frame and cover with EPDM liner. If you wrap the liner around the wood you can form a gasket seal if that's important to you.

Choice kind of depends on weight and whether the lid is visible.

 

[addy1]

That is about 58x38 inches (about lol) the hardibacker would work, but might be heavy. I know they make plastic/ vinyl storage boxes here with lids around that size, but don't think you want to buy a whole storage box just for the lid. Unless you would want to replace your wood box with a plastic storage box, just cut out the bottom and slip over your filters.

Something like this but it would need to be a little larger

http://www.homedepot...#specifications

or you could get a few lids from plastic containers, here they sale just lids, that are large enough to cover your wood box.

A picture of what you are dealing with would help.

and welcome to our group!

 

[Waterbug]

HardieBacker would weigh about 13 kg for 0.6 cm thickness, plus some wood framing, so maybe 18 kg total. Hinged on one side the lift would be about 9 kg. The lid can also be split into 2 sections if 9 kg is too heavy. I think in general, for that large a filter pit I would want separate doors, just easier not matter the material. But depends on the pit.

If you wanted the 1 cm HardieBacker that would increase the total weight by about 4.5 kg.

Moot point however since HardieBacker isn't sold in the UK but I assume there are similar materials. I like this type of product because it's so darn cheap, $10 here for a 3'x5' sheet, last forever, easy to use, looks pretty good bare but takes paint well or masonry. Not effected by UV or water. One of my fav.

 

[addy1]

I use hardiebacker all the time, my only issue with it, it does crumble if you are not careful with your screws.

 

[koiguy1969]

composite decking would make a reliable maintainence free lid. and give the appearence of wood...what look are you going for? you could "refinish" the whole structure...it would last a LONG time!

 

[addy1]

wonder if they have it in the uk

corrugated roofing might work well to, if you don't want to redo the whole box, if you have it there.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/cat...=None&Ntpr=1&Ntpc=1&selectedCatgry=SEARCH+ALL

 

[Waterbug]

I use hardiebacker all the time, my only issue with it, it does crumble if you are not careful with your screws.

Very true. For showers and such that get covered it's OK for me...although sometimes I don't get the screw head far enough, the tile hits it, pain. But for when I use it where it will be visible I pre-drill a hole and counter sink. And measure out the screw holes so it looks uniform. Makes it pretty.

 

[addy1]

Good hammer smack gets the screw out of the way of the tile!