Glass lids on tank?

[Torsionpain]

Newb question. Why can't you have glass lids on tank to prevent evaporation? Something about O2 surface transfer. But doesn't the skimmer O2 take place of that with all the air bubbles?

 

[Smiley]

Gas exchange and cooling are the 2 important ones....

 

[jda123]

Totally fine on a Fish Only tank. The glass will reflect tons of light in a reef.

Oxygen is not a huge issue. Heat REALLY can be, just like a tank with a tight hood can also have heat issues.

 

[fishguy69]

+1 on the info for reef and fish only. Depends on what you are doing.

GWA

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

Time will tell. I'll wait to judge for a year or so. It'd be great if everyone in co ends up going to foco for the fish. All stores workin it.

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

Time will tell. I'll wait to judge for a year or so. It'd be great if everyone in co ends up going to foco for the fish. All stores workin it.

Wrong thread! New lfs is where this belongs. Lol sorry

 

[Torsionpain]

Time will tell. I'll wait to judge for a year or so. It'd be great if everyone in co ends up going to foco for the fish. All stores workin it.

Lol. I was wondering about your post.

+1 on the info for reef and fish only. Depends on what you are doing.

GWA

Just trying to figure out what to do with glass tops.

 

[jda123]

You keep them in a safe place for when you either sell the tank, covert to fish only, or have to leave on vacation and want to keep evap to a minimum.

 

[SkyDiv3r17]

I've run glass tops for like 4 months now on my reef. I went from topping off a gallon a day to a gallon every 5 days.. My tank stays below 80 and is totally fine. I do have low pH though but its only seeming to slow down the coral growth. Which Im ok with at the moment. But I actually have 3 separate glass pieces covering the top from home depot, cause Im cheap.

 

[J-don]

I've got a 30g setup that started as FOWLR with a glass top that I've added a few corals to. The algae certainly didn't have any trouble getting light (thank god for vodka dosing) and the coral seems to be doing OK. On larger or deep setups or non-LED setups it's probably more troublesome, but glass is probably a fine option for smaller setups. Coral selection might be limited to those that don't need the brightest of lights.

 

[Blindrage]

The problem I saw with my glass tops was the salt creep and the reduction of light penetration.

It did not take much to cut the light by 25% (estimated, no par checking).

 

[kmcmurtry]

I run glass tops on my 30 cube, but it has a chinese led and I clean the glass every now and then. I haven't seen any slow-down in growth, and the evap problem on this tank was substantial before the tops. There is a 2 inch gap toward the rear where the tops don't cover (as this is where the skimmer hangs on) so I do still get good air flow.

 

[ReefCheif]

My 180 had a glass devider / support at the top running front to back in the middle. If I didnt clean the thing at least every other day the film from the saltcreep would start to cover the glass. You could totally tell the center of the tank was darker than the rest of the tank. I actually tried to run a 400 watt MH in the middle to help with this and it didnt.