Enough gas exchange?

[Coach63]

I'm in the process of building my tank and I want to limit the amount of evaporation in my house. I plan to (or would like to) put a solid top (glass or plexiglass) on the tank itself as well as the sump. I realize gas exchange is important so my thought process would be to counteract this lack of surface area by putting in an airstone somewhere in the sump with the intake coming from the fresh air from outside. If I put it near the filter socks, this should limit the amount of bubbles that make it to the DT.

Sound feasible?
Thanks.

 

[o2manyfish]

Are you going to use a protein skimmer? A good protein skimmer should provide adequate aeration of the water, and you can pull the air from outside to keep Co2 levels down.

 

[Coach63]

I will be using a vertex 180i for a Reefer 350

 

[nervousmonkey]

The vertex will aerate your water, especially if you run a line to the outside. No need for an air stone. If you put a CO2 scrubber on the intake to the vertex you don't need to run the line to the outside. Just soda lime in an air canister. $8 for the soda lime and $40 or $50 for a air canister from BRS and you'll be fine. Keeps your pH at a really stable level as well.

 

[2xal]

for what it's worth after a wrasse made a leap of faith years ago I ran full plexiglass tops (aside from 2 - 1" finger holes to move them) on the display and sump. everything reacted fine. Fish, soft and hard corals, inverts, etc. My skimmer ran 24/7. Most of my aeration came from the overflow drain into the sump.

Edit: it's worth noting, however, that I got a lot of salt creep on the DT covers and if I didn't stay on top of cleaning them I would get noticeable light dimming that would affect corals. I had to clean them at least every couple weeks.