glass top with halides

azonic

azonic

Active Member
Currently I am using a glass top on my tank with my halides. They rest around 8 inches above the water....
Just the other night they the glass tops were really covered in salt and water, etc so i took them off to clean...When i put them back on again the tank was SOOO much brighter, and the shimmering effect of the lights was at least doubled...
I really want to remove the glass tops, but I think I'd lose WAY too much in evaporation, plus i'm worried about a fish splashing water onto the bulbs....
Who here uses them or not...any negative and/or positive effects of both ways? Anyone have a bulb blow because of water splashing it? How much would evaporation increase by? Right now I barely lose a gallon or two a day...
 
finland

finland

Member
I don't use glass covers on my 150 and I lose about a gallon and a half a day. I do have a canopy, but I always open the front a little too help cooling.It was too much a pain to be constantly cleaning the tops. My mh's are about 8 inches above the water and they really don't get splashed.(except by me when I yank my arm away from eel.LOL) Removing the glass tops also lowered the tank temp. I guess it depends on what type of fish you have, as far as splashing. My fish rarely splash. Do you have a canopy , or are you hanging pendants?
 
josh

josh

Active Member
Hey Azonic,
I wouldn't worry about a small splash or two on the MH lights......very small splashes though.
Yes you for sure lose more H2O, but there is two ways to look at this. Evaporation is a pain in most reefers butts, but it is very beneficial to the tank if it can be consistanly topped off to maintain salinity.
You will increase gas exchange and the tank will be cooler.
Are you doing just manuel top offs now? You might want to either get a float/powerhead top off system or a dosin pump. If you can't maintain the level in the tank don't take the top off. The salinity swings will be hard on the tank.
HTH
 
azonic

azonic

Active Member
How would I make an auto-top off system...are they available pre-built? Or is it a DIY'er...
 
josh

josh

Active Member
Well you can get them prebuilt....such as the tunze ozmomat. Or if you have a sump you can just get a float switch and attach it to a powerhead. I wouldn't do this if you don't have a sump though, snails can attach to the float, thus overflowing the tank.
If you don't have a sump, you can get a dosing pump. Just do a search on them, I have a spectrapure litermeter that I dose Kalk 24/7 as my top off water..... it was the best investment I have made on my tank to date!
 
jonthefb

jonthefb

Active Member
josh, thats the exact reason i dtiched them on my 135. i have a mh retrokit in my canopy but everythign is protected by a clear sheet of plexigalss anyways, so i ditched the glass, and dont have to worry about splashes, the evap and gas excange are both great because you continue to add elemets with new sw, and also dissolved oxygen is greatly increased, which you fish definately benefit from!
good luck
jon
 
jarre

jarre

Member
This question seems to be rather fitting for me.
I've got two new tanks and have been purchasing equipment in hopes to have everything ready for system startups around middle December.
As luck would have it, my current 45 had a ballast go out in its lights system. Well, since I don't want to put a lot of money into a 45 that won't be running much longer and I've got a dual 175W MH PFO Retro sitting here I decided to do my first DIY! Basically, all I needed was a canopy. I don't have any wood working tools at the moment so building a wooden one is a little out of the question. After a lot of thought I told my brother I'd be back with a new canopy. I returned with a big new aluminum Mailbox.
Yep, my brother laughed himself to death when he saw me carry in a $10 mail box and declared it to be my new canopy!! It's working really well even if it is a bit odd!! :rolleyes:
I placed my glass covering over the tank because I've got a cat and noticed the temp rising rather rapidly. Once I placed the fan behind the system blowing at the mailbox the temp has held stable. I can't help but wonder if the difficulty with the temp in the tanks is inadequate air flow or canopy exhaust. Of course, if it weren't for the cat I wouldn't have my on like others have suggested.
 
blondenaso1

blondenaso1

Member
Aside from evaporation what about UV light? I don't have a cover on my 20g which has a halide over it and recently I have been thinking if it is giving off too much UV light. I know most MH bulbs now are made with UV sheilded glass, but I am not sure if they are 100% effective. What do you guys think?
 
slothy

slothy

Active Member
i have a ? everyone talks about uv worries.. what about in the wild ? i know fish done carry sunblock with them.. ?
 
jarre

jarre

Member
The top is lined with a piece of the reflector that came with the lighting so it's pretty good!
 
josh

josh

Active Member
UV -
Single ended mogul lamps have a UV shield the encases the acutual lamp.
Double ended - must be ran with a glass shield to filter out the UV
Both ways still let some UV through but not nearly as much.
IMO - UV is a big deal, I almost think more-so for the reef keeper than the fish, I sure don't want to go blind.
 
blondenaso1

blondenaso1

Member
slothy, it's called the atmosphere :) It works as a big UV sheild so we all don't fry from UV light. And yes, UV is a big deal. Ever seen a bunch of acros in a tank that are all brown? That is from to much UV. Under the same light with the UV filtered out the corals would turn amazing colors. That is why I was concerned.
 
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