Any suggestions for a magnifying glass for the tank?

[bigtoga]

I bought a new tank that arrives later this month (they had to order the base). We were at the store tonight and saw The IVS Portal (http://ivsportal.com/):

http://i.imgur.com/T9imGl.jpg

My son, 7, loved it and so did I. It delivers - for $80, it's an amazingly crisp and clear magnifying glass. This blog post (http://www.elitereef.com/ivs.htm) does a good job of explaining just how cool it is.

Anyway, when we talked to one guy at the store, he advised us against it for a sand-based glass tank. He said that what he's seen happen many times is that a single grain of sand will get caught between the magnet and the glass - and poof! You now have scratches all over the glass. We looked at the tank that they had it on demo on and sure enough there are scratches.

My son was upset - he wanted it and so did I. So I promised him I would research and find something we could use, even if it was a high powered magnifying glass.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Erniec]

well you can get scratchs from almost anything in a tank, I have seen some real bad scratches in tanks from people not being careful when cleaning the glass with the magnetic glass cleaners. So you take your chances with anything that rides across the glass.

But I love the idea!! going to CVS and see what they have, A hand held will be just fine for me!!, if I can see well with it resting on glass I will just put some felt on the outer edge.

Great Info

Thank you for Sharing

[greeneyed]

I don't see it being worse than sand on magnetic cleaner. Heck it even works as a cleaner.

But if you want to try and find a suitable lens, here is a great site I have used in the past.

http://www.surplusshed.com/

But you must remember that a convex lens will invert the image.
You will also need to know the throw or distance you will be viewing.

[Super Fish]

Wow that is pretty cool ... i like that.

[bigtoga]

Cool - thanks for the link. I'll poke around.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid - new tank and all makes me overly protective :)

It should be said that I have a 3yo and a 7yo who can't wait to play with it. I'm mostly concerned about them playing too rough with it and swwwwwwwwwwwwwwoooooooshing it from one side to the other!

[satyra]

never seen those before, i would love one if they didnt scratch the glass so easily :( my tanks dont have scratches right now (and theyre old too :D) and i dont plan on getting some lol

[Erniec]

Well I went to CVS and bought a 7 dollar glass works well for what I need it for , 3 times is plenty :D

[bigtoga]

Well I went to CVS and bought a 7 dollar glass works well for what I need it for , 3 times is plenty :DThat's what I'm going to do as well. For a 3yo and 7yo, they don't need much!

I did buy this today for $6.40: Amazon.com: Carson Optical Lumiloupe 10X Power Magnifier: Sports & Outdoors

http://i.imgur.com/6stVk.jpg

[Erniec]

The kids will love it, going to give mine a test run this weekend to see how the kids like it

[Mwil3]

Ya, I don't use my magnafloats for anything but feeding clips anymore. Scrapers are much safer.

[bigtoga]

That's what I'm going to do as well. For a 3yo and 7yo, they don't need much!

I did buy this today for $6.40: Amazon.com: Carson Optical Lumiloupe 10X Power Magnifier: Sports & Outdoors (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CAHCQS)

http://i.imgur.com/6stVk.jpgThe loupe came in today - it's a great loupe but, foolishly, I failed to account for the depth of field :) It works great for seeing scratches on the front of the tank. For anything beyond 1/4 inch from the loupe, it's useless!

[satyra]

Lol, that sucks!

[Erniec]

wow go to CVS and buy the 5 Inch glass they sell for 6.99 it is a 2.5X has a black handle, I think you will like it , you can take the glass out with out ruinning the package so if you don't like it just return it

[bigtoga]

I took the chance and bought it - and I'm so glad I did! I would totally recommend it! You can see it here:

http://i.imgur.com/Tkbwel.jpg

And here is my taking photos by pointing my lens through it:

http://i.imgur.com/5DCvGl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CU1Wal.jpg

I need to figure out how to get better lighting for the shots - the portal ring + camera flash don't play well together. I think it will be awesome though once I (a) figure out how to take better pics, and (b) get something in the tank worth shooting! It's a brand new tank so it's empty