protection for light?

[peachie98]

Okay...I've never had a light fixture that doesn't have a protective plastic cover over the bulb part to separate it from the tank.
The T5 fixture I have now has no cover...and when I noticed the burned out bulbs the other day I also noticed a LOT of salt buildup on the bulbs and rust on the clips.
Any suggestions on if there is something I can put over the bulbs or over the top of the tank to prevent this?
It's an acrylic tank so would buying a sheet of clear acrylic and putting it over the openings in the top of the tank work without hurting the light getting to the stuff in the tank?
Also...if that would work, what can I use to cut the acrylic to fit?
Thanks!

 

[peachie98]

Any suggestions?

 

[jimvette1]

RU saying your light never had a cover or it's missing it's cover?
My light has a grove in it to hold the plastic cover.
If it's just missing it's cover can't you buy a thin piece of plastic to cover just the light only?
Depending on the thickness of plastic, I use either a tablesaw or a very sharp cutter designed to cut plastic.
IMO covering the light would be better than covering the whole tank.

 

[schnutzzy]

If your light setup has a groove on each side, just measure it and go to home depot or Lowe's and buy a piece of plastic and either have them cut it or buy the cutting tool they have and do it yourself. Also some LFS' have some extra light shields in the back for extra parts. Maybe you could check that out to. Good luck!!!!

 

[peachie98]

Thanks guys! I just looked and it does look like it has grooves on it...so I guess I'll get to measuring and take a trip to the store to see what I can find.

 

[mr_x]

or maybe contact the manufacturer and get the correct cover that came with the fixture when it was new.

 

[peachie98]

I'll look into that as well...I have to call them tomorrow as the internal timer is messing up (it's a light with a programmable remote that must run on a 22 hour cycle instead of 24 hour, doh!).
Temporarily I remembered I had the cover from the original light that came with the tank (since it's acrylic it was custom fitted to the openings in the top of the tank) and I put that in top of the tank for now.