Am I better off without glass covers?

[wagz]

Hey there,

I justed started using the glass covers that I had cut to size to allow room for canister hosing and the fact my hob is on the side, its an hos.

I have injected co2 and from what I read covers stop some of the loss due to mixing with o2. Obviously it helps with evaporation and jumpers too. Only lost one lf zebra danio a few months ago during an escape attempt.

I noticed it is not as bright in the aquarium as before. I am working with 2 watts/gallon on my 75g, and not even sure if its that because my odyssea t5 may not put out the rated amount because of cheaper ballasts etc. So I can't afford to lose much light. I do plan to buy an additional light in the future, but I'm still in debt over everything I've done so far.

I have been researching and have conflicting thoughts. Some say you lose very little 5%, some say more including all UVB rays(I don't know how important UVB is in freshwater plants). Some say they never use them, some say use with no problems.

Also the glass is green from the side, so it's the typical iron content one, which diminishes more light.

Does the blockage of light outway the benefits to evaporation, and or co2 preservation using glass covers?

Thanks.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

As long as you clean off the glass when it gets hard water stains light loss won't be an issue. It generally comes down to preference or plain old fish protection. If you keep jumpers then I'd definitely use a lid, but don't stress over light loss.

 

[Rivercats]

I don't like covers of any kind but when I have to use them I use glass as it's easier to clean off, which you will have to keep up on top of. Dimmer tank light is one of my biggest gripes about them. So far I've been lucky with not having any fish jumpers and I have threadfin rainbows, cardinals, rummynose, longfin white clouds, and loaches which could easily go flying out. It really boils down to if you really need one and if not is it worth the small amount of CO2 and a possible fish suicide for a brighter tank IMO.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

So what do you think you're going to end up doing? No wrong answers here, I'm just curious about it. Sounds like you have a unique setup.

 

[wagz]

I'd love to put the light right on the glass. But I have the filter on the side because of a molding the runs along the wall of the room. I would have to have had the tank far away from the wall and it looked shabby seeing all the plumbing and wires. I have one side of the lights resting on the filter top and the other side a small board. Only 2.25" above glass, 3.5" above water. For the screening, I'm thinking about it. Stops jumpers, doesn't help with co2 loss or evap. They have a clear meash kit at brs, 4ft kit is $40 on sale. Seems pricey. Might try home depot, but this stuff is clear:
DIY Aquarium Screen Top Netting Kits - Bulk Reef Supply

Pics(although this is just temp scape as I just received some seiryu stones and will make rock formation on right side and have to move a lot of things around

 

[Jodisgermanshepherd]

Awesome looking tank!!

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Yep. Definitely a great tank. I like the glass but you could always experiment with it and take it off for a while and see what you prefer. You could also remove the glass from one side and see it there is a visual light difference or plant growth difference.

 

[aqua_chem]

Screening, especially fine screening like fiberglass window screen, will cut down on your light pretty significantly, usually around 30%. This can be advantageous if one was overzealous with their lighting, but it can really cut down on light in a medium/low light tank.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Screening, especially fine screening like fiberglass window screen, will cut down on your light pretty significantly, usually around 30%. This can be advantageous if one was overzealous with their lighting, but it can really cut down on light in a medium/low light tank.

So true. I'll be putting black window screen over my 5 gallon planted tank just to lower the light which seems to be to bright for the anubias. I'd never use it for anything but light reduction.

The clear screen from BRS would be way better if you just want to keep in jumpers and not jeopardize your light.

 

[jcolon]

There isn't a chance in ..... Well you know ... That I'd leave my tanks bare tops. Wanna take a guess at how many kids toys / crayons, markers and other "stuff" has either bounced off or pasted onto my glass tops?

 

[aqua_chem]

So true. I'll be putting black window screen over my 5 gallon planted tank just to lower the light which seems to be to bright for the anubias. I'd never use it for anything but light reduction.

The clear screen from BRS would be way better if you just want to keep in jumpers and not jeopardize your light.

It's not the color of the mesh, but the actual grating itself that reduces the light.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

It's not the color of the mesh, but the actual grating itself that reduces the light.

I didn't know that. I just thought the clear one would let more light pass through than the black one would. That's interesting. I'll still use the black screen to cut down on the light because my pop has some. Use what you got kind of situation.