I have some square cutouts on the back of my tank hood for my air tube and filter... the snail crawled out of those and died because of it... how can i block them off, don't forget the filter and air tube sit through them... so i cant just take a square piece of plastic and put it over it... I was thinking a wire mesh or something, but how would I secure it? I'm kind of lost as to what to do...

Have you seen those plastic stiff wire meshes at craft stores? I think they're using for knitting or something, you can cut those to minimize the space required for your equipment and then use super glue or aquarium glue to fast it onto the hood.

you could use clear packaging tape(wide strips they use on boxes) to secure whatever you use to the tank... i've actually just used the tape it's self to close gaps

thanks nenn works great!