Glass Aquarium Tops - How bad is reflected light?

[mike550]

Bit of a random question. I’d like to use glass tops on my aquarium (120G reefer) but wondering how much light will reflect off the glass from my aquarium lights? (2 AI Prime HD). Reason for my question is that the aquarium is located in an area with a low ceiling, and I’d rather not have lights reflecting onto ceiling.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and any suggestions!

 

[reef lover]

Not much light reflection...i have part of mine covered.

 

[LadyMac]

I’ve never had any issues with reflected light. Due to a glass canopy.

 

[lapin]

Keep them clean underneath and you will not have an issue.

 

[markysgirl]

I'd like to give this a bump and add some questions about glass canopies.
My 75g DT with a Trigger 30 sump is in our living area where my husband has a pretty extensive book collection (his reef tank ).
We also live in North Texas where the humidity is usually at least 50% every day. Our house is usually somewhere between 62 on winter nights and 78 on away mode in the summer.
My questions are these:
1. Would gas and exchange be affected? I have a skimmer in the sump which is uncovered.
2. Do you think it will get too hot in the tank?
3. What and how often is the maintenance on glass canopies?
I'm planning to have an LPS & softie tank maybe a couple of sps coral way down the road.
4. Will the glass affect the light the corals receive?
Thanks everyone for your awesome help.

 

[reef lover]

1. Gas exchange will def be affected. To counter leave sump uncovered in stand and aim powerheads at surface of water.
2.will keep some heat in but can counter by lowering the house temp or using a fan over sump.
3.will need to be wiped down weekly for dust and salt accumulation.

 

[AquaBiomics]

I'd like to give this a bump and add some questions about glass canopies.
My 75g DT with a Trigger 30 sump is in our living area where my husband has a pretty extensive book collection (his reef tank ).
We also live in North Texas where the humidity is usually at least 50% every day. Our house is usually somewhere between 62 on winter nights and 78 on away mode in the summer.
My questions are these:
1. Would gas and exchange be affected? I have a skimmer in the sump which is uncovered.
2. Do you think it will get too hot in the tank?
3. What and how often is the maintenance on glass canopies?
I'm planning to have an LPS & softie tank maybe a couple of sps coral way down the road.
4. Will the glass affect the light the corals receive?
Thanks everyone for your awesome help.

I use glass lids on almost all of my tanks to reduce evaporation. I see a very small difference in PAR with glass lids. Maybe 5-10%?

Gas exchange ... sure, but if you have a sump and skimmer thats a non issue. You already have plenty of gas exchange in that case.

I clean the glass lids when I think about it, which is much less often than the glass on the aquarium itself. Maybe once every 2-4 weeks?

Reducing evaporation absolutely helps to keep heat in the tank. Thats agreat thing for me in OR, maybe less so for you in TX. But for me its only about 1 degree C difference. Worth watching your temp after you add the lid.

 

[Silent]

I use glass tops. Ph is 8.2-8.3, skimmer is in the stand, haven't had a need to use kalk to raise ph due to poor gas exchange.

 

[alton]

I use glass tops on all my tanks, but I still use wet drys. So air exchange is no issue because I use a drip plate over bio balls for increased oxygen. I did have an issue using a trigger sump on my 65, so I changed to a wet dry and never looked back.
When I had my 300DD my AC guy loved/hated me because I had humidity issues and ran through 3 fan motors on my ac system in 10 years. With glass tops on my 180 and now my 310 no problems. The picture below is an old 158 and the light shown contained 2 x 250 and 1 175 MH. I ran a fan to keep the glass cooled so not to crack.

 

[markysgirl]

As usual you guys are amazing!!! I'm going to order glass tops. Hopefully this will keep the books from being affected.
I will keep a close eye on the temp once I put them in.
Thanks again guys!

 

[DothanReefer]

Where does everyone get their glass lids from? Maybe i'm just terrible on google, but i cannot find any glass lid dealers!!??

 

[alton]

Check with manufactures. Aqueon, Marineland, Planet sell their own.