Tank topper question?

[NewReefKeeper]

I'm currently keeping a rather impressive (and expensive) marine reef tank and I'm sick and tired of the traditional glass canopy on the top of the tank. My lights (130 watts total, 65 watt actinics and 10,000K daylights) tend to create some heat on the surface of the tank, which is starting to affect my water temp. So, I would like to replace the glass canopy w/some kind of mesh/metal wire to A)help reduce heat on the surface of the tank and B)improve the light that my corals are getting (glass filters out some of the light as well as blocking it when the canopy starts to get salt creep or film.) If it weren't for my fish in the tank, I'd just leave it open but unfortunately my clowns and damsels chase each other and I don't want to wake up and find any or all of them on my living room floor! I've tried 1/4" metal wire, which I trimmed up to fit the top of my tank, but it dips in the center and into the water, which I can't just leave there. Has anyone done this or can offer up some recommendations as to how to achieve what I'm going for??

Thanks!

Inhabitants: 2 kenya tree corals, 2 colonies of green star polyps, green & orange zoanthids, pipe organ coral, 1 toadstool leather, 1 blushing coral, 1 leather sinularia, waving hand xenia, and a small colony of mushrooms

Fish: 2 firefish, 2 ocellaris clowns, 2 blue damsels, 1 black-axel chromis, 1 lawnmover blenny

 

[cam191919]

look into eggcrate, iv never used it but some people swear by it for this purpose

 

[FastFly67]

another vote for eggcrate. i used it on my koi grow out tank and never once had a fish hit the floor. it's rigid so there's no dropping and you can easily notch out pieces to fit any filters, hoses, etc.

 

[fsn77]

Some people use eggcrate (light diffuser), and I've seen some use clear plastic mesh. I would recommend against using metal wire (which didn't seem to work for you anyway), as you wouldn't want the metal getting into your reef tank.

 

[rdfriend]

I use eggcrate on top of my 125 because I have a dragon wrasse and chainlink eel, both known to leave a tank. I have already lost one chainlink to accidental suicide. Although I'm sure that it does diffuse the light somewhat, I don't notice a large reduction. My lighting is the 432 watt 8 bulb Nova Extreme and I don't have the tank reef because the wrasse, eel and dogface puffer are not reef safe so really don't need that much light at this time but the coraline is beautiful. Also my tank is an Oceanic with the glass support across the middle and I'm sure that the crate lets in more light than the filmed up glass does.