glass tops on my reef tank?

[captnslapy]

Is there any real disadvantages of putting the glass tops on my 55 reef ? I have t5 lights and everything seems to get covered with salt quickly. Has anyone had a bad experience with using the glass lids? Will it cut down on the lights enough to matter?

[spieszak]

Holds in heat, filters out light. Also I was told that its the spectrum of the light it blocks that's the problem, not what you see (visible lighting change will be minimal) I don't have a par meter so can't back that up with fact.

[sasharotty]

Originally Posted by spieszak

Holds in heat, filters out light. Also I was told that its the spectrum of the light it blocks that's the problem, not what you see (visible lighting change will be minimal) I don't have a par meter so can't back that up with fact.

+1 Being t5 wouldnt trap ALOT of heat but being a 55 might be an issue.The main issue would be salt creep covering glass causing an issue, you would have to clean them daily. Pita if you ask me. Go to BRS, they have a netting that serves its purpose well.

[malawinovice]

The glass tops get salt spray and get cloudy quick. The also inhibit the exchange of air/water at the top surface of the tank.

I would raise your t5 to 4 inches above the tank. That should cut down on the salt spray.

I built a 3/4 wood canopy to allow the fixture to sit above the tank and allow access from the front.

[captnslapy]

I have a wooden canopy and my lights are about 6 inches above the tank. Fish jumping is not an issue. Just wanted some input on the glass and if it was worth using. And maybe cut down on some of the evaporation. It was just an idea. Thanks for all the responses.

[kzooreefer]

i use a glass top without any issues. my skimmer helps to control gases as it has an air venturi and heat nor light have never been a problem. glass isn't a good relfector nor adsorber of any wavelengths of light. if it was the uv/vis equipment i have at work would be useless as the light passes through glass first.

[tmichael]

I have read that with glass tops you lose up to 30% of your light through the glass tops.

[gorey]

I for one use glass tops. And have no problem keeping corals. As far as cleaning them goes I wipe the the top about once a month with a paper towel because it can get dusty, and as far as the under side i clean that about once a year. It stays pertty clean there because the humidity. It is much safer, And most people that tell you not to use them have no experience using them. People have just told them that they are a bad thing. so thats what they tell you. The light loss is not much. O and did i mention its a lot safer. Most of these fixtures were not made to be directly over water.

Jeff

[captnslapy]

thanks , I think I'm going to use mine and see how it turns out. I'll make sure I post the results I get. again thanks

[zenpytho]

i use glass tops on all 3 of mine and i remove and clean glass once a month it has cut my evaporation in half even with sumps bein open tops but all DT's have tops

[Felixc395]

I'd definitely stay without a top. Too much lost light, it's just a waste. The only advantage I see is that it prevents fish from jumping, but that's not a problem for you. Seems like you'll be fine without it!

[nuclearheli]

Have glass tops for my 90. They were on for a few months, off for a while, on again, now off again and in the garage. I think the significant buildup of condensate under the glass was the first thing that bothered me, visually. Besides, I had to clean mine constantly. I found that splashing at the top of the tank caused some water to be splashed on the glass, not evaporated up there. Then it would dry and leave salt residue.

Anyway, I took them off because of the evaporation issue. Cutting back significantly on the evaporation actually was a problem for me. I use Kalk for makeup water and I have a heavy SPS tank. My tank was stable and happy using more make up kalk water. Cutting back on the amount of daily make up water screwed up my chemistry. Who would think evaporation would actually be a good thing.

I have no jumpers at the moment so no glass but I would go back to glass if I needed to in the future and work out my other problems.

[kmu]

I use glass tops on all my reef tanks during winter, helps keep warmer water temps, the heater doesn't run that often and I just lower the lights to increase the light intensity that gets lost with the glass lids..

Now on summer I use open tops (remove the glass lids), helps cool the tank, the chiller runs less often and I just raise the lights...

[andresp]

A glass top not only keeps heat in which can be good or bad depending where u live but also it does let the surface of your tank get the needed aeration or oxygen exchange to oxygenate the water and keep ph at a high value. If you can, an open top is the best way to go IMO.

[captnslapy]

wow really seems to be 50/50 on this subject.

[ATinPGH]

Why not a DIY mesh top? Keeps the fish in, allows the light through and doesn't inhibit the oxygenation.

[shoprat001]

Its what I did. Went to Home Depot and in the window section you can buy screen kits to make your own frame. Then I went to the lawn/garden part and bought bird netting for the screen itself. Works beautiful.

Norm

[bradjc]

I'm in favor of the glass tops. If you go without the glass tops then the salt grim will eventually get all over your bulbs and reflector. You can clean glass easily but cannot clean a reflector. At MACNA one of the speakers who studied this said that if you don't have glass within 3 weeks the reflector and bulbs are so full of salt grime (even if you can't see it) that it negates any light output savings you get from not having glass. I've been using glass for a long time and I've successfully grown all types of coral without extremly powerful lighting.

[jimnrose]

I also have glass over my 125 display, mainly to protect the lighting (LED's) from salt corrosion. Acrylics will warp and polycarbonate has a UV stabilizer that blocks the low end of the visible (450nm) thereby blocking the violet range (royal blue LED's). Jim

[nuclearheli]

My light assembly has protective glass over the halides and over the T5's. No exposed bulbs or reflectors. Personally I would use glass tops for another reason if I was having issues with water spray on my bulbs and reflectors. Never mind the potential for a short but if that water ever hit my halides (250w) when they were heated up I am sure they would burst. What a mess that would be. So yes, use glass if your bulbs are unprotected!

[kissman]

I know this old but. I have a 55g and I bought the screen top kits from bulkreefsupply and they work great they keep jumpers in tank, dont hold in heat and aloow for gas exchange at surface

[James77]

Originally Posted by tmichael

I have read that with glass tops you lose up to 30% of your light through the glass tops.

I don't buy it, assuming they are kept reasonably clean. Its only glass

[James77]

Originally Posted by captnslapy

wow really seems to be 50/50 on this subject.

So be 50/50 yourself

I use a mesh top, and its great in the summer and keeps my stupid cat from drowning. But you lose alot of heat in the winter to the open top, the flip being holding heat in in the summer.

I did not this year, but I plan on having glass tops in the winter and off in the summer to keep a good temperature range and save energy. The smide of light that is lost through the glass can easily be compensated for by dropping the lights an inch.

[Yogre]

As my SPS collection grows, I need the evaporation a screen top gives me, since my Ca/alk supplementation is through kalk in my ATO.

My mogul base pendants are protected from splash/salt creep damage by their own glass shields.

[TimeConsumer]

A separate forum has PAR results of mesh tops, glass tops, and eggcrate on light diffusion. I'm hesitant to link to a different forum on RC but here are the results:

"I've been playing with an apogee par meter and thought I would post the results of how the mesh tops compare to other popular alternatives.

In these results, I am running a double ended 14k coralife 150 watt bulb. The sensor is approximately 4-inches directly below the bulb. Pumps are turned off to stabilize the reading and give a "best case" scenario. Here are the measurements (units are umol m-2 s-1).

no top 345
mesh top 327 (6.3% reduction)
clean glass top 305 (12.6% reduction)
egg crate 265 (23.2% reduction)

One thing to note is that the glass top is perfectly clean no...no salt creep...no condensate so that's a best case scenario. All measurements were taken directly below the bulb, meaning that with the eggcrate the light drastically is cut down once you move off center. (Maybe I will post some linear results using just eggcrate soon so the offset can be quantified.) "

PM me if you would like me to provide the link to the foum that I found this on.