Glass tops on reef tank??

Brady Bunch · Feb 10, 2016

Do any of you use glass tops on your tanks? The reason I ask is my son has 3 planted freshwater tanks with glass lids and gets near zero evaporation. My tank evaporates much more than his 3 does, I am sure glass lids would help but I am curious what the disadvantages are. My tank is 75 gallons and I am using LEDs for lights.

saltyfilmfolks · Feb 10, 2016

I do. I also use thick acrylic in the summer with my DC fans are mounted on them(velcro). Also a thick acrylic on the sump.
Dis advantage is cooling I believe. Probably aesthetic. I have a canopy and closed stand so i dont see it.

moulton1853 · Feb 10, 2016

I have glass lids and I love the fact the salinity hardly ever changes. No need for top off equipment. You do need to wipe off salt creep every couple of days.

aaron23 · Feb 10, 2016

cooling and aeration of the water will be affected - o2 and co2 from water

SnailQueen · Feb 10, 2016

I've been using glass tops over my two nanos for years now. I've only ever run LEDs with them and haven't had any problems with cooling (although I do keep the central air on 72-74 in the summer). I wipe them down once a week when I top off, and I only find myself topping off a half gallon or less in my 20G and a quarter gallon or less in the 10G. Both tanks have AquaClear filters on them which I think helps with the aeration factor.

stupidted · Feb 11, 2016

I use lids to reduce evaporation and to also help keep temps stable in the garage tank. Just in case I have the skimmer pulling air from 1/2 pvc that is run outside for fresh air.

aaron23 · Feb 11, 2016

stupidted said:
I use lids to reduce evaporation and to also help keep temps stable in the garage tank. Just in case I have the skimmer pulling air from 1/2 pvc that is run outside for fresh air.

Can you explain how that works? How exactly do you have pipe run outside the tank and outside the house?

stupidted · Feb 11, 2016

Pretty simple actually. I picked up about 30 feet of 1/2 pvc , 90 degree elbows, and a cap. In my garage there are fresh air vents on the bottom opposite wall so I ran the pvc up and over through the rafters and had the " intake " terminate inside the vent. The other side which connects to the skimmer airline I simply drilled a hole for the airline tubing and then inserted the airline tubing in it and capped off the pvc sealing it up. If I stand outside I can hear the air being sucked in.