glass top yes or no
 

I recently bought aqueon's versa glass top for my aquarium and found they actually block lights because of water evaporation, so I took them out but what happened is my water evaporation increased to almost 2 gallon a day(72gal) and my sleeper goby jumped. so yes or no for glass top? alternatives?

mesh top + ATO

USED TO DO GLASS, BUT HAD A FRIEND MAKE ME MESH/SCREEN TOPS! LOVE THEM AND MY WRASSES CAN'T GET OUT!

This is what we do. I have a 5 gal ATO resevoir and I need to fill it up every 36-48 hours. Dry winter air and creeking harwood floor in our house doesn't seem to happen anymore :smile:

The cross brace in the tank needs to be cleaned often so I know what you are dealing with having to clean the glass so often. It gets old real quick. Topping up the evaporation is the lesser of two evils.

I have an open top, with Tunze ATO... Love the open feel, but it does mean I cannot get livestock that jumps or can crawl out.

I have glass tops over all my tanks now. Yes, I lose some of the light's intensity etc. but my open top 210g with 75g sump used to lose 10-15g per week. All that water vapour into the house's interior cannot be good for the house or its occupants (ie. mold/mildew). Glass tops has me down to 5-6g on the 165g with open 90g wide sump. I'm sure I could cut this down even more with glass tops over the sump. In my house, any open top tank loses two to three times as much water through evaporation than a closed glass top tank. With severe MTS, this is a real concern.

I was thinking of going mesh top but the evaporation rate increase has me hesitant to go that route. And yes, I am wrasse-crazy so the tops serve a double purpose. But mainly I have them to reduce evaporation.

Hey Anthony , what is the difference in temperature.

I prefer open top over glass lid for a few reasons: I like the open top look, light intensity is cut slightly with glass lid, and if not cleaned regularly algae/ salt creep etc can build up and reduce light even more. As for evaporation, I use a tunze ato with great success, and i find if your fish are not stressed and compatibile with your other fish, jumping is minimum if at all.

i have open top. and i get about 1 gallon per day of evaporation since switching to LED. (Use to be about 2.5 gallons per day with halides)

i have 3 wrasses and none of them have ever tried to jump out

an alternative could be to use eggcrate.

I'm full LED now so heat not an issue. Also I can crank my LEDs to 100% instead of 70% if necessary:wink:

Last summer the weather was so cool heat never an issue.