Well to be honest it wasn't a tight fit. almost but not quite and both figured out a way around it so i took it back out and put more places to hide in the tank. seems to be working ok for now as the gt still looks better than when i brought him home from lfs where he had gotten prettu tattered by all the other gt's he was in with. figure i'll just keep a close eye on things since i'm having water difficulties at the moment and spending much time checking things out and doing water changes anyway. thanks for asking, you people here are so nice.