Lighting through Glass

shawnhardy

shawnhardy

Member
Does having a glass cover on your tank have any reprecussions as far as light goes? Does it decrease the PARs that make it to the water?
Do people run their reefs with or without tops? What are the affects on temperature? Does keeping a tank covered keep it cooler or hotter?
No cover means more evaporation correct? Is daily topping off required with no cover?
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member

Originally posted by shawnhardy
Does it decrease the PARs that make it to the water?

Yes
Originally posted by shawnhardy
What are the affects on temperature?
I don't know a single person who has a glass top on their tank. Temperature being the main reason.
Originally posted by shawnhardy
No cover means more evaporation correct? Is daily topping off required with no cover?
Depends on your system. A steady salinity is very important. I use an auto top off system. I top off about 30 gals a week on my system, 120 gal tank, 30 gal frag tank, 40 gal sump..(1170 watts of lights)
 
jobob

jobob

Member
i had glass over my tank. i was cleaning it the one day and i took off one side and wow u could see the difference about 10% more light. so i took off the back glass and left the front on. i think the brown plastic holdin the glass together had a lot to with it. i keep the one piece on the front so nuttin falls in. but since i put on another light i guess i dont need it. so i got 4x55 and 2x65 on my 55gal. i lose about 12 gal of water a day. some days more some less.
 
shawnhardy

shawnhardy

Member

Originally posted by golfish

I don't know a single person who has a glass top on their tank. Temperature being the main reason.
assume you mean it keeps it too hot?
Depends on your system. A steady salinity is very important. I use an auto top off system. I top off about 30 gals a week on my system, 120 gal tank, 30 gal frag tank, 40 gal sump..(1170 watts of lights)
wow that is a lot of topping off. does a reef with metal halide lighting generally require that much topping off? I was unaware of that. it seems like it would be impossible to keep up on it without an auto top-off system huh?
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
My 110g (1,020 watts) evaps about 14-18g a week.
Glass tops hold in heat. It also hinders gas exchange... I would take them off. If you have jumping fish you may need to use some egg crate to cover the edges of the tank. Other than that, leave it open.
 
oceana

oceana

Active Member
i went topless on our tank a few months ago and the difference is GREAT lighting seemed to be MUCH brighter and ph also became more stable due to better gas exchange. the tank also droped almost 4 degrees. which was great because it was running high due to the new lights. i now evap about 25 gallons a month. i was evap about 18 so not much of a change
gl to ya
 
kaotik

kaotik

Member
what does this do to your light bulbs tho?? Do you get a lot of salt creep and aren't you worried that water will splash onto your bulbs and/or electrical? Instead of the evaporation going onto the glass top it will go directly up to your lights.
 
wax32

wax32

Active Member
Keep your lights high enough so they don't get splashed. My VHOs have rubber gastkets that keep moisture from hitting the connections. At 4" above the surface I just get a little salt built up on the bulbs. When the lights are off and the bulbs are cool a damp rag takes care of that.
 
X

xnikki118x

Guest
I have a hood on my tank...it's an Eclipse system, 29-gallon. I don't lose much water due to evaporation, but there are vents in the hood to aid gas exchange and I verrrry rarely have a problem keepnig my water parameters or my temperature stable. :)
 
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