affects of using Glass tops

[bencc]

I have heard they will block out the uv rays used by the coral. How much do they really block out. Is it that much or should I just not worry about it. Does anyone keep a reef tank with a glass top. I have 250 watt mh and 110 pc on a 54 corner.

 

[birdy]

Not only will they block some of that good light you spent all that money on, but it traps heat and gasses inside your tank. Take those tops off, you won't regret it.

 

[bencc]

I have never used them, but I just moved everything into my new tank and it came with the glass top. The wife wants a top on it and i'm just trying to convince her that the top is bad for the tank. I do have a refugium, wet/dry, and a protein skimmer that help with temp and off-gassing.

 

[neowind]

Hey bencc can you post some pictures of your tank? I seen a far off shot and it looked awsome I would love to see it. I had the excact same setup as you do I think because mine had a glass top also. I did run it with the top on for about 1 week and noticed my tank temperature was insane and that the glass would fog up with salt and water spots and so forth so I took it of and it does 10 times better.

 

[lestregus]

i run a reef with the glass top on. i do this because i keep an eel and i don't want him to jump out as easily. (he's jumped even with the top on). however, i don't run MH, i run VHO, so i don't have that much to worry about as far as heat. plus i have an open back canopy for air to get in. i'm not very worried about reduced UV because i have mostly softies. sounds like you want to keep light intense corals so i would recommend not using the glass top, unless you have a similar situation with jumping fish. hope this helps some...

 

[dragoon]

Blocking UV I don't know about that seems kinda fishy. It does however diffuse about 20% since block is a bad word to use. The intensity is reduced mostly cuasing the light to not be effective at depths. I would never use glasstops unless as lestregus pointed out had an occupant not willing to reside in my aquarium. Especially if running Halides as the heat would be more detrimental to your tank than anything else. I've seen PC's crack tops on tanks do to heat and I could only imagine what Halides would do:scared: .

 

[obtusewit]

If you must have a top, due to either critters the crawl or a wife that bawls, consider acrylic. There are several dozen different acrylic compositons but several permit 100% UV and light conductance. Obviously, there is some loss but it is less than 1%. Amazingly, or maybe not, Home Depot carries it in .120 and .240 thicknesses.... Gotta love da depot

 

[bencc]

Thanks everyone for all the replies. I will look into the acrylic and I Will try to post a pic when I get home from work..