screen lid affect lighting?

I have been tinkering w/the idea of making egg crate WALLS (vs a ceiling) and gluing it together to form a wall around the perimeter of my tank and then lining that with screen (as done by triplemom).

I have not been happy w/the light reduction the eggcrate is causing me... I imagine the screen would be even worse in this regard.


I lost three blennies to jumping. I added egg crate and have lost nothing since.

The firefish I lost was due to harassment and starvation caused by my female clown. But it never jumped.

 

Along those same lines, one thought I had was just draping screen over the entire top of the tank, over the lights. Ugly as sin, but very functional, and won't block the light at all. It could then be secured with velcro tape. What do you think?

 

just curious, but where do you guys buy egg crate from? No intention on hijacking the thread, sorry.

 

home depot or lowes kd. and with some imagination jj, you can prob make it so it looks neat and tidy.

 

what is the actual name of the stuff, or what is it more commonly used for? gotta get some for the bottom to hold the live rock!

 

You know what, I really like that idea! I may have to tinker with that myself. The night cover has done well for me so far, but I still worry about day jumpers (both of my jumpers have been at night). I knew I was going to be gone all day today, so I just left the cover on. It definitely cuts down on the light, but I'll sacrifice that some for peace of mind. Heat wasn't a problem (built-in fans on the light).

I found it over in the ceiling tile section of Home Depot.

 

Or in the lighting section, they put them on the bottom of office type florescent lights. Think there called diffusers.

 

As with most things in life, it's all a matter of degrees. If you are running 400W MH over a 90 gal tank then your corals should be fine with a reduction in PAR values. If you are trying to grow SPS in a 225 gal tank lit with VHO flourescents then even the slightest reduction wouldn't be good.

 

Hmm, seems like another great idea!