Evaporation is not a bad thing and better gas exchange is a huge plus. Screens are awesome! I have an ato so evaporation doesn't bother me and actually topped off manually for years as the evaporation is not that much.
Glass tops
- Thread starter Cflip
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Evaporation is not a bad thing and better gas exchange is a huge plus. Screens are awesome! I have an ato so evaporation doesn't bother me and actually topped off manually for years as the evaporation is not that much.
blue meanies
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- Mar 11, 2017
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I went to a regular glass maker and had one made to my measurements. Had him put cut-outs in two corners on one short side for ventilation (have a heater sticking through one of them), a semi-circular cut-out on the other short side (my second heater and the return from my HOB skimmer go through there), and a fourth cut-out extending along half of one long side (which I cut the cutting from and fitted with a plastic hinge to use as a door for more access), which also has the intake for my skimmer at one end. It was way cheaper than buying a hood, allowed me to customize what I wanted and let me hang my LEDs from the ceiling to shine right through.
I suck up defrosted fish food into a syringe and shoot it through a hole in the screen, or throw pellets through the screen (usually the wife doing that, lives to feed but frozen is gross). If it's too chunky I lift my screen and feed, nothing rest on top of the screen so the whole thing can come up easy, it doesn't weight anything..
njtiger aquariums
Well-Known Member
I had a glass top on my 54 as well as my 36. I wasn't a fan of the glass tops cause you have to make sure you clean them well or your par drops. After awhile I bagged my glass top on the 54 and went open top; granted I had no jumper. I had Kessils over my tank and once a month (or sooner if needed) I would wipe the light clean. Wiping the lights clean is good habit because they collect dust and junk on the fan which left too long can kill the fan and cause the light to over heat. Now if I had fish that were known jumpers I would personally go with a screen top over a glass.
don_chuwish
Smells something fishy
As for debris falling into the tank through a screen top, I have a worst case scenario. Dog and a cat in the house and the tank sits under an open tread stairway. My R420R lights get pet hair on them, the screen top gets pet hair on it, but very little ends up in the tank. I'd see it in the filter socks if there was much.
BRS did a video reviewing 1/4" screen vs 1/8" screen and noted no real PAR difference - so if you really want to keep things both in and out, finer mesh is an option.
BRS did a video reviewing 1/4" screen vs 1/8" screen and noted no real PAR difference - so if you really want to keep things both in and out, finer mesh is an option.
I had the same worry about pet hair but found a comment by Randy Holmes-Farley from a couple years ago:
"Aside from clogging filters and such, I see no problem if it is not soapy or have a lot of hair styling stuff in it.
Hair is largely protein, and many people find it useful to dose amino acids, which is what proteins become when broken down. [emoji4]"
don_chuwish
Smells something fishy
Yeah, it's not really a problem, just unsightly if it's drifting around in the water. I'm more worried about the dog dropping a toy through the stairs into the tank! Luckily now I'll be using a canopy that should block most anything like that.
