Glass Top

I was told in my other thread that i should take my glass lid off of my tank. If i truly do need to do that, i need to know because if i end up taking it off, it changes the whole look of my tank, the maintenance, and i have to build/buy some stuff to hold my lights on. here are a few pictures. Just wanted your opinions!

Here are some pictures:

PS: i have a 20 gallon long so thats a lot of surface area

 

You can just leave the lid open. I wouldnt bother taking it off considering you have no brace to hold your lights. The tank breathes better w/o the glass. You might get tired of cleaning the glass cause of the salt creep that will get stuck to the bottom of it from the filters.

 

You should get rid of the glass top. Only serves to hold in heat & cuts down on gas exchange.

 

What Glampka said or you can leave then until they change the look of your tank .. I wish they had never been made myself worse idea I have ever seen in this hobby I think .

 

What kind of lights are you using and is heat a problem?If not Ithink I would keep the top or maybe just try to raise it a little with some sort of spacers to allow more ventilation,no top however does make it easier to work on the tank as well as the other benefits.I had to lose my top when I switched to mh and I like it better ,except for the extra evaporation,its a tradeoff...hope this helps

 

You could cut a strip of plexiglas to hold the lights. No problem there. You may want to fashion a 'lip' on the front and back (weld-on 4 or 16 would work to do that). We don't want the lights falling into the water. But as much of that top as you can needs to be scrapped.

 

I kept mine on. I installed gasketed material along the rim of the tank and any intake/outake tube openings are covered. The only holes I have are for an airline connected to a pretty a strong air pump for o2 exchange located on one end and a opening approx 1" dia on the other end. With the pump on, you can feel the air coming out of the hole. I don't get much loss in water evaporation either and salt creep is kept to a minimum. My chiller also helps out w/keeping temps down.

 

I think you should just keep the front lid open all the time. This allows for gas exchange to occur, atleast being more than what it is now, and prevents you from spending money and time on creating a support for your lights. Whats in the tank and how is everything doing anyways?

 

use Egg Crate, ie. light defusser

 

actually, the egg crate thing might be a good posibility. Ive seen it on many tanks and doesnt look too bad. my 1 problem with keeping an open lid is that all the evaporated water gets ALL over my lights and i have to wipe them off daily (speaking from my other sw fish tank). Is there any way of putting something under the lights so it doesnt get as much on the lights? but thanks a lot dasco for reminding me of the egg crates idea.

PS: just a stupid question. Where would i get some egg crate material/grid? Home depot? Lowes?