Glass or net lid??

[StefanW]

I'm setting up my first saltwater mixed reef tank. Its a 40 gal breeder that is almost ready for water. I was wondering how much a glass lid would effect my lights. I'm running 2 ai prime reefs. Im trying to figure out if the benefits of glass for evaporation outweigh the effects on the lighting? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[N.Sreefer]

I have a glass lid its a pain i would switch to mesh in an instant if i could justify the expense to the other half

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Glass lids have two very tangible downsides to me. Firstly is holding in heat, second is salt creep and the effect on light.

I go screen tops for every tank. I have been custom made at the hardware store with quarter inch clear netting purchased from BRS. I just had two made last month and it cost me 15 bucks combined. Worth it.

 

[Chrisv.]

I'm setting up my first saltwater mixed reef tank. Its a 40 gal breeder that is almost ready for water. I was wondering how much a glass lid would effect my lights. I'm running 2 ai prime reefs. Im trying to figure out if the benefits of glass for evaporation outweigh the effects on the lighting? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I use a glass lid and ai prime lights. I was very worried that it would screw up my par. I used a par meter to check and I was pleasantly surprised. It was about a 5% hit. Even with condensation. Fear not!

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I have a glass lid its a pain i would switch to mesh in an instant if i could justify the expense to the other half

You don't need to go Lazer cut acrylic crazy custom lid. You could screen top under $20 and have it look good.

 

[JNalley]

I used to run glass tops on my 55 Gallon about 10 years ago. It was a pain to clean the glass every week to keep it crystal clear for the lights to get through. I now run a net top on my tank, and find it's a pain to keep topping off the tank, but that process can be automated with an ATO, so, it's less annoying.

 

[Chrisv.]

I have zero salt creep issues. Condensation cleans the inside of the lid with fresh water. There is no discernable build up at all. I clean the dust off of the lid once a week. A major advantage is reduced evaporation. I have no issues with heat.

 

[JNalley]

I have zero salt creep issues. Condensation cleans the inside of the lid with fresh water. There is no discernable build up at all. I clean the dust off of the lid once a week. A major advantage is reduced evaporation. I have no issues with heat.

strange how 2 people can have very different experiences... I had major salt creep on my 55, to the point that if I missed a week of cleaning the glass tops, they'd look like frosted glass after 2 weeks.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Look into Top Lids. Might be a good option.

 

[Karen00]

I have zero salt creep issues. Condensation cleans the inside of the lid with fresh water. There is no discernable build up at all. I clean the dust off of the lid once a week. A major advantage is reduced evaporation. I have no issues with heat.

Do you have an area for gas exchange and to let heat escape? I'm still trying to decide between glass/acrylic or a screen top. I wonder why some members have issues with glass or acrylic but others such as yourself don't.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I have glass lids on both my 150-gallon FOWLRs; the lights sit right on top of the glass. Obviously par is not an issue in a FOWLR, although as one person said, condensation pretty much keeps the inside of the lids clear. It does raise the heat level— here in Fla. in the middle of the summer my tanks ran up to 86-degrees all summer long. But having to deal with major evaporation just from the sump area, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have screen top 150-gallon tanks. (My screen top 20-gallon AIO needs about a gallon of fresh water every three days.) So those are my pros and cons to you.

 

[BiggestE22]

I'm setting up my first saltwater mixed reef tank. Its a 40 gal breeder that is almost ready for water. I was wondering how much a glass lid would effect my lights. I'm running 2 ai prime reefs. Im trying to figure out if the benefits of glass for evaporation outweigh the effects on the lighting? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

This has been awesome for me. Not real cheap though

 

[miltonkl]

You don't need to go Lazer cut acrylic crazy custom lid. You could screen top under $20 and have it look good.

What are you using for such a cheap top? I'm setting up my first tank and currently don't have a top. I'm assuming this is just some basic hardware store stuff. Any chance you could link the product so I can go look for it? Those fancy custom tops are expensive and I could probably get by with a simple little rectangle in front of my AIO back chamber area (whatever that's called!) to just keep the fish from jumping out.

Related but slightly off topic anyone have thoughts on if those little feeding ports are worthwhile/easy to install? Taking the top off to feed seems easy enough, but they make them, so maybe that gets more annoying/problematic than I think? Maybe someone invented a problem because they had a solution?

 

[Woodyman]

Do you have an area for gas exchange and to let heat escape? I'm still trying to decide between glass/acrylic or a screen top. I wonder why some members have issues with glass or acrylic but others such as yourself don't.

I have 2 cats roaming around so I went with glass.

On the rimmed tank there is a 1/2" gap on the back so it doesn't actually rest on the back rim. The tank is in my basement so no heat issues, and there is a sump+skimmer so no worries a out gas exchange; and as mentioned the fresh water condensate that forms on top keeps most of the salt creep at bay, I still get some around the top where the lid rests on the rim on the sides and front of the tank. I clean the top simply because of the cat hair.


On my rimless tank there is ~ 1/4 of an inch clearance on the sides, I keep it pushed to the front so there is ~1 inch open on the back of the tank

 

[Woodyman]

What are you using for such a cheap top? I'm setting up my first tank and currently don't have a top. I'm assuming this is just some basic hardware store stuff. Any chance you could link the product so I can go look for it? Those fancy custom tops are expensive and I could probably get by with a simple little rectangle in front of my AIO back chamber area (whatever that's called!) to just keep the fish from jumping out.

Related but slightly off topic anyone have thoughts on if those little feeding ports are worthwhile/easy to install? Taking the top off to feed seems easy enough, but they make them, so maybe that gets more annoying/problematic than I think? Maybe someone invented a problem because they had a solution?

I had my glass tops custom cut from a local glass shop cost me ~60 bucks for 3 panes. I left enough clearance front to back so that I could slide them back to feed and then just slide back to the front.

 

[BiggestE22]

What are you using for such a cheap top? I'm setting up my first tank and currently don't have a top. I'm assuming this is just some basic hardware store stuff. Any chance you could link the product so I can go look for it? Those fancy custom tops are expensive and I could probably get by with a simple little rectangle in front of my AIO back chamber area (whatever that's called!) to just keep the fish from jumping out.

Related but slightly off topic anyone have thoughts on if those little feeding ports are worthwhile/easy to install? Taking the top off to feed seems easy enough, but they make them, so maybe that gets more annoying/problematic than I think? Maybe someone invented a problem because they had a solution?

If I had to remove top to feed that would be annoying.

 

[Idech]

DIY. I’ve always had glass on freshwater tanks and it gets stained after a while so I can’t imagine with saltwater.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

What are you using for such a cheap top? I'm setting up my first tank and currently don't have a top. I'm assuming this is just some basic hardware store stuff. Any chance you could link the product so I can go look for it? Those fancy custom tops are expensive and I could probably get by with a simple little rectangle in front of my AIO back chamber area (whatever that's called!) to just keep the fish from jumping out.

Related but slightly off topic anyone have thoughts on if those little feeding ports are worthwhile/easy to install? Taking the top off to feed seems easy enough, but they make them, so maybe that gets more annoying/problematic than I think? Maybe someone invented a problem because they had a solution?

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/clear-netting.html

Here is the netting material.

The frame was built by my local hardware store. Honestly they are easy enough to build yourself I just don't enjoy doing that kind of work so I outsourced it and am happy I did. Especially for pricing. Tensioning screen lids in a frame is more of an art than a science. Over or under tension will pull one side up or let it sag.

 

[Karen00]

What are you using for such a cheap top? I'm setting up my first tank and currently don't have a top. I'm assuming this is just some basic hardware store stuff. Any chance you could link the product so I can go look for it? Those fancy custom tops are expensive and I could probably get by with a simple little rectangle in front of my AIO back chamber area (whatever that's called!) to just keep the fish from jumping out.

Related but slightly off topic anyone have thoughts on if those little feeding ports are worthwhile/easy to install? Taking the top off to feed seems easy enough, but they make them, so maybe that gets more annoying/problematic than I think? Maybe someone invented a problem because they had a solution?

I have a feeding port on my tank's stock lid. I never use it but that's because I have to target feed my shy/cryptic/bottom dwelling fish. I think they work if you have fish that will come to the food. At the same time I would be concerned about fish having to come to one tiny area for food. Might cause aggression or or injuries or less aggressive fish to be pushed away but I assume the same thing could happen with an auto feeder unless more than one feeder was in the tank to spread the food out. A feeding port is probably something that is tank/fish dependent. If the lid comes with it you can try it but I don't know that I would pay extra for it knowing how my inhabitants behave. I've been using mine for gas exchange and to let heat out. It's been handy for that by flipping it open.

 

[JNalley]

Do you have an area for gas exchange and to let heat escape? I'm still trying to decide between glass/acrylic or a screen top. I wonder why some members have issues with glass or acrylic but others such as yourself don't.

I know for me that the reason my salt creep issue existed was that I had a lot of water breaking the surface tension, and that caused misting/splashing which lead to the salt creep on my glass... Not sure how others have the same thing but no salt creep though...