I just use egg crate to fill in the blank spaces, and silicone the mesh onto the egg crate. Makes it more sturdy in my opinion. The edges of the mesh can be siliconed to the glass and top frame of the exo-terra.

 

I just use egg crate to fill in the blank spaces, and silicone the mesh onto the egg crate.

How did you manage to cut the egg crates cleanly? That was my initial plan but the egg crate end up looking like an OSHA violation. For a false bottom it's fine since I highly doubt springtails and isopods are going to be impaling themselves, but I don't want to risk it with the frogs.

 

2 cm thick glass

Is this a typo? That's more than 3/4 inch.

Not sure about the design in the photo, but a really simple way to solve this is to use a piece of glass (tempered is best) for the front portion of the top and a window screen kit insert for the back portion that isn't covered by the glass. No duct tape needed (though I do sometimes put a little piece of clear Scotch tape on each side to make sure I don't knock it out of place).

For the record, I personally think the best way to handle top venting is to use pieces of acrylic placed over the stock screen top.

 

Is this a typo? That's more than 3/4 inch.

Yeah, that's a typo. I meant 2 mm thick, so very thin glass hence why I'd asked if it was a bad idea.

but a really simple way to solve this is to use a piece of glass (tempered is best) for the front portion of the top and a window screen kit insert for the back portion that isn't covered by the glass.

As I'm not in the states and don't have access to services like Amazon, I'll see if I can replicate this methodology in my neck of the woods. I'm not sure if I'll be able to find the correct type of frame that'll fit things perfectly.

For the record, I personally think the best way to handle top venting is to use pieces of acrylic placed over the stock screen top.

I'm personally not the biggest fan of the overcast look that the middle bar across the top of the exo-terra lid causes, but if I can't find any alternatives I guess I'll do what you did but with a piece of glass instead?

 

If possible, try to remove the frogs for a few days in a temp bin, then do it properly!

 

Not entirely but the lights do straddle the center support.

 

Silicone doesn't reliably bond to acrylic. Acrylic to acrylic joints are best (and easily) solvent welded with an actual acrylic cement -- search 'acrylic weld on' here for details. Not sure what would bond the screen to the acrylic though -- maybe gel super glue.

 

Silicone doesn't reliably bond to acrylic

Thanks for the heads up. I feel like I've managed to avoid a catastrophic error. But yeah, if I can't silicone the no-see-um mesh to acrylic then that kind of defeats the point. What's the active ingredient in superglue gel? Is it still cyanoacrylate or is superglue gel different from normal superglue? Recon something like the E-6000 would work?

 

Decided to go with a traditional glass top using 1x1cm solid acrylic bars to create a frame to hold the no-see-um mesh. I understand that acrylic tends to bend under vivarium conditions, but hopefully it's thick enough for that not to be an issue? Unfortunately the rods are only 30 cm long so I'll need to silicone them together and saw some pieces.

Thanks, everyone.