Making a suitable lid to turn an aquarium into a gerbilarium

[Tarukia]

Hi guys! 
I recently purchased a nice 180 liter aquarium as an upgrade from my 75 liter gerbilarium I want to keep the cage topper I had for it though and somehow attach it to a lid for the aquarium do you have any good tips on how to make a suitable lid?

[kim]

You could try something like this (this is the lid on one of my tanks) but instead of having the 2 sides have the topper on one side and make a lid like this for the other side.
Its basically just one long plank of wood screwed onto the plastic frame (if you tank has a removable one) then attach the door with hinges.





Then you could make clips somehow for the topper to clip on to.

[Tarukia]

That looks like a good idea i'm guessing the holes are for air flow purposes?

I looked to see if I had any wood in the garage and I found this ikea table top that matches the colour of the tank nicely I could cut down to size. This is the tank set up with just 2 new toys in there not including all their current toys that are still in their old gerbilarium that they are still housed in I let them have a run around in it last night without the table ontop and they just loved it I think I made them sad by putting them back in their old house.



If I make holes in it how small should the be? I don't want to run the risk of them being able to somehow escape one of the boys (Loki) is like houdini he seems to squeeze through the smallest holes to get out and always manages to find a way to escape if I don't close the cage 100% properly lol

The tank is 101cm x 50cm x 40cm and if I sit the current cage topper on it it's another 26cm high x 66cm long so plenty of room for my 2 spoilt babies

Thinking of cutting a large hole in the wood and putting a ladder up into the topper as I don't really like the bars of the floor of the topper as I'm always worried they will catch their feet or legs in it when they run so fast is that a good idea? or is it better to keep the barred flooring of the topper and not have wood in the way at all just have wood where the topper isn't covering?

[kim]

yeah the holes are for air flow. That table top looks perfect.
It doesn't really matter what size the holes are mine are about 7mm but i'd say between 3-8mm maybe as long as enough air can get in and theres enough ventilation.

I think that idea is good, bars can be a problem for gerbils feet. Its a nice set up to and plenty of bedding for them to dig

[Tarukia]

ahh ok thanks for the advice I'll probably do around 6/7mm as well then! There is also 2 small gaps in the back of the aquarium that are there for the light fitting from the original lid and also the pump wires so I think I'll just put some wiring over them and use them as extra ventilation holes as well. 

I'm so much happier that they can have a good 10-12 inches or more of bedding to burrow through in this tank I've currently got 8 1/2 inches in there but I only put that in there to see what it was like so I'll top it up with more later where as their other gerbilarium only can have up to 6 inches as they like to push it up in the corners else it just all comes out of the sides it's only 10 inches deep.