Glass tops

[Chooch4044]

Hello everyone,
I am setting up a new saltwater tank, it's a 150 gl. Should I have glass tops or should I leave the top open?

[Sqasnatch]

Up to u, pros and cons of both

[Animal-Chin]

Id love to hear the pros and cons as my open top evaporates like crazy and was thinking of glass

[Tmyboy]

I say glass tops.

I had mine open for a while until I got my firefish, which went carpet surfing.

I was also losing Judy under I gallon a day because of the open top on my tank combined with the open top fuge.

Glass tops=less water evaporation and security when it comes to keeping inhabitants in tank!

My .02

[Jlsardina]

I took my glass tops off. When the water evaporated I was left with salt crystals on the glass tops. My salinity kept dropping slowly as well. With them off my salinity is a lot better and I've noticed the lighting in the tank is better. If you are worried about jumpers put some plastic egg crate over the top of the tank.

[Jlsardina]

Originally Posted by Jlsardina

I took my glass tops off. When the water evaporated I was left with salt crystals on the glass tops. My salinity kept dropping slowly as well. With them off my salinity is a lot better and I've noticed the lighting in the tank is better. If you are worried about jumpers put some plastic egg crate over the top of the tank.

Just my opinion anyways. :P

[Dary421]

in todays world,...right or wrong,...the census is to leave your saltwater tank without a top,...the reasoning behind this is that your tanks water needs a way to expell built up gasses thru the water surface.,kinda like keeping all your windows in your house closed sooner or later the air will become very stale and toxic .
the down side to this is that your tank will lose more water thru evaporation,..thats where the automatic top offs ( ato ) come into play,...as your saltwater evaporates , the water evaporates but leaves the salt behind making your tanks water more saltier,...the automatic top offs replaces that water with the same amount of clean fresh water thus keeping your tanks salinity stable

[melosu58]

I say ditch them. Lower PH will be the result with them on due to poor gas exchange at the surface. They also trap heat in the tank from the lighting. I`ve gone almost 14 yrs without them.

[Fritz007]

I'm not sure if it's true or not but I always leave my glass tops off because I think they diffuse UV

[Sqasnatch]

There you have it, the cons outweigh the pros

[Tmyboy]

Well shoot....now I have to remove mine!! LOL! Seems
to be way more reasons to not have them. That was a waste of $60.

[AquaRick]

You can always go the best of both worlds. Remove the glass top and use a canopy. Better gas exchange and pH balance without the top, and the safety of a canopy.

[Sqasnatch]

Myself. I cover the top and leave the sump open. Lots of gas exchange and less evaporation. If its hot out I remove the top ones.

[leftyfish]

Off, but when new fish go in the tops go on for a week or so until they are comfortable (less likely to jump).

[Tmyboy]

Originally Posted by Sqasnatch

Myself. I cover the top and leave the sump open. Lots of gas exchange and less evaporation. If its hot out I remove the top ones.

ahhhhh.....good call. I never thought of this sqasnatch. very good point. I suppose I can leave my lids on because I have the open fuge down below. I didn't take that info consideration when I was questioning myself why I hadn't had any PH problems with my lids on after reading this thread.

It's obivously because my 30g fuge is open......thanks for that. I really wasn't thrilled about leaving the lids off because of the massive amounts of evaporation.

In addition to that, I'm going to Belgium on Friday and I'm DREADING the fact that the someone else has to take care of my tank. I less thing I need to worry about.

[FTMMWS]

Originally Posted by Sqasnatch

Myself. I cover the top and leave the sump open. Lots of gas exchange and less evaporation. If its hot out I remove the top ones.

same here

[Sqasnatch]

Glad I can help.

[Rutrag]

FWIW I have one tank with an open top and another with egg crate. If I wasn't worried about my flasher wrasse carpet surfing, my 75 would not have the egg crate. Another option if you have fish who like to jump is to make a screen top from a screen window kit (about $10 at a hardware store) and 1/4" screening which is available from Bulk Reef Supply for this purpose. The downside to the egg crate is it's very noticable and (IMO) unattractive. It may create a grid shadow in your tank as well. (It's not really noticable in my 75, at least to me) The up side is you can trim it to still fit pretty snuggly around any overflows, cords, or plumbing you might have. In any case, I lost two other flasher wrasses from my 37 and perhaps a royal gramma as well. When I set up my 75, I knew I wanted to have a flasher wrasse and learned the hard way from my mistake.

[Sharkbait54]

I use glass tops on all my tanks, I don't exactly know what people are talking about trapped heat never had a problem with that. Also I've lost 3 fish to jumping when I didn't have the top on (water change)

My mom has a 125g without tips and has a canopy it looses about 3 inches of water to evaporation its ridiculous.

[Rutrag]

Open topped tanks do suffer from more evaporation. My 37 averages 3 gallons per week and hits 4 in summer. My 75 is insane to the point I had to add an auto top off and 3 gallon reservoir which I fill at least twice per week.