Tank Covered or not?

Reef Ghost

Reef Ghost

Member
Wondering what everyone is doing as far as to cover or not? I recently removed the glass top from my 90gal and built some screen covers to replace them, lighted by a Nova Extreme T5 432 watt setup, to allow more heat to escape.

- Now we all have seen and felt how glass magnifies the sunlight, so are we letting in more light or actually decreaseing it by removing the glass tops? Anyone have access to a light meter to test this? It looks brighter but ... ?

It seems like every light manufacturer states must be used on covered tanks but we all know that doesn't happen even at the LFS.

- So I am wondering how many people have open tanks vs covered? Any learned pros and cons to this?

Thanks!
 
Wakeskater02

Wakeskater02

Member
I can tell you that the ocean does well and it doesn't have a glass top. Also your disolved oxygen should be slightly higher as there is more contact with the air rather than a closed tank.
 
nstiesi

nstiesi

Member
I run open top.

Pros to open top: open access, can look at life from above, keeps the tank a tad cooler

Cons to open top: Fish jump, salt creep (not in my case, I have very few bubbles in the display), quicker evaporation

As far as the light magnification: Nothing is going to get magnified by a flat piece, it would need some sort of curve for that. All it will do is refract light slightly depending on the thickness of the glass. And, to the contrary, when U had my glass lid, it would need frequent cleaning, and the crud on the top actually restricted the light into the tank.
 
nstiesi

nstiesi

Member
Besides, if fish jumping is the only concern, you can make jump guards that allow for air and light to pass through, but not fishies.
 
nstiesi

nstiesi

Member
I have seen people use screens, mesh, or the plastic "egg-crate" light diffusers from home depot. Whatever it is, just make sure it is plastic and non-toxic.......not that it will really be submerged anyway.
 
MotoReef

MotoReef

Member
Open seems to be the choice as far as I have seen on most people's tanks today. As for replicating ocean though, most of our corals we keep comes from depths much much deeper than 24" deep tanks we normally have. So glass or acrylic top does help reduce UV and infrared from a extremely high light levels. Then again, even our Metal Halide is not nearly as full in spectrum nor as intense as sunlight so there is a balance.

Just watch the corals carefully when you do remove it though, since there is a significant light spectrum and intensity change we may not see with our eyes.

I have an open tank... but has pretty hefty corner braces on all sides of the acrylic because of it's triangular corner tank shape that keeps most fish from jumping out (seems most of the time, fish jump out near the corners of tanks where it swims up rapidly against the pane, though things like gobies and jaw fish do jump at random places.)
 
Reef Ghost

Reef Ghost

Member
Well I can def say the temp dropped 4 degrees after replacing the glass top with screen and the tank does appear brighter. Down side is the evap rate went up but I can live with that!
 
C

csmsss

Member
I can't stand tank covers - among other the other ills mentioned, they are just something else to collect salt and thus require periodic cleaning.
 
C

csmsss

Member
Reef Ghost said:
Well I can def say the temp dropped 4 degrees after replacing the glass top with screen and the tank does appear brighter. Down side is the evap rate went up but I can live with that!
Click to expand...
This is definitely a compromise most R/O filter owners can easily live with.
 
LilGreenPuffer

LilGreenPuffer

Member
If you have kids around, you might factor that in... "Look, Mommy! I can feed the fishies all by myself!" "Uh-oh! I dropped it!"
 
scubamattv

scubamattv

Member
CATALYST said:
I use egg crate. I have very curious cats that like to walk on top of the tank.
Click to expand...

my cats leave the tank alone - although when I had a goldfish bowl on the bathroom counter the cats used it as a water bowl. that feeder goldfish won from a fair lived for almost 2 years with the cats sharing the water
 
MotoReef

MotoReef

Member
LilGreenPuffer said:
If you have kids around, you might factor that in... "Look, Mommy! I can feed the fishies all by myself!" "Uh-oh! I dropped it!"
Click to expand...

It was 9 years ago this summer, when my toddler daughter decided my heniochus butterflies were hungry and she decided to empty a bottle of ketchup in my reef, causing huge drop in pH, and crashing the entire reef tank of few dozen corals, with no survivors but a couple of damsels. (If I was home 6 hours earlier, maybe some life could have been saved....) However, I can only blame myself, for she did the act in kindness and concern.

Please use caution when you use ketchup/mustard dispensers for target feeding your corals. Your child may assume you are feeding ketchup rather than plankton when the container used is a bright red generic ketchup bottle... :)

Label it "Baby Shrimps" or something... So kids "get it"
 
DublD

DublD

Member
MotoReef said:
It was 9 years ago this summer, when my toddler daughter decided my heniochus butterflies were hungry and she decided to empty a bottle of ketchup in my reef, causing huge drop in pH, and crashing the entire reef tank of few dozen corals, with no survivors but a couple of damsels. (If I was home 6 hours earlier, maybe some life could have been saved....) However, I can only blame myself, for she did the act in kindness and concern.

Please use caution when you use ketchup/mustard dispensers for target feeding your corals. Your child may assume you are feeding ketchup rather than plankton when the container used is a bright red generic ketchup bottle... :)

Label it "Baby Shrimps" or something... So kids "get it"
Click to expand...

OMG that sucks. I had to think about it for a minute but I guess ketchup would be acidic though, huh? Wouldn't it figure the damsels were the ones that made it. :cry1:
 
MotoReef

MotoReef

Member
csmsss said:
Naturally. They are the cockroaches of the seas.
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LOL, well some of them roaches are pretty and peaceful though...
Like my Green chromis school under 20K metal halides, just such a neat blue-green reef water from the sky colors!

I hate Bigass Black Dominos and Girabaldi though...they are just NASTY!
 
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