glass cover on 10g or no?

[sanblas]

hi all,
I have a 10gallon mantis/live rock/some coral tank with 2x65 watt pc. Ive seen conflicting ideas on whether or not to use a glass cover on the tank or not and I'd appreciate some ideas and feedback on this. Will the glass top deflect too much light? Without the cover will evaporation become too big a problem. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
cheers,
sanblas

[bamann345]

I say no...

You will have to clean you bulbs off b.c of this and top off water a little more.

[Jeremy1973]

What lighting do you have above the 10 gallon? If you have PC, the heat will not be that big of a factor so you won't have to much of an increased evap rate. But, if you do want to keep evap down, put on the glass cover. Just be sure to clean it, cause it will slowly get salt growing on it, and blocking some of the light.

I have run a 10 gal with and without a glass cover. So, I don't really see one as being better then the other. In my humble opinion.

[Elott]

I ran into the same issue when I started my 10 gl tank. You really want to avoid glass. It’s a nightmare to keep clean and it blocks certain wavelengths of light that are beneficial.

The next question was how to mount the light above the tank. I ended up building a base for the light. I used 1x4 pine stock and built a box that fit to the outside dimensions of the tank.. Inside the box I fastened tabs top and bottom. The box rests on top of the tank and the light sits on top of box. I then drilled a series of two inch holes on the back of the box and on the ends to allow for the heat to vent and not overheat the tank. The last step was to paint it black to match the tank and light. It takes some work but it looks great and is very functional

You will have to clean the bulbs a bit more as mentioned but this is a more benificial set up for the tank.

[ckreef]

You will either have to clean glass or clean bulbs. There is no real way of getting around the cleaning issue.

I would NOT put the glass on for the many resons stated above.

[DukeJJZ]

Plus having a glass top causes the water temp to be a little hotter. My water was running a little hot so i removed the glass and now its perfect.

[jesspaul]

I would say yes to the glass top.
-Its easier to clean the glass top than the bulbs and reflector.
-You will have less evaporation with the glass so yes the tank may be hotter but you won't come in from a long weekend with the water level being a couple of inches down and your salinity sky high.
-small fish and shrimp tend to jump

the glass will block a little light but not as much as you will lose to salt creep on the bulbs and reflector.

[dhoffroad]

I have a glass top on my 10 and I am running coralife 96W quad with the mounting legs. withe the glass top on. when it gets' hot in my house ( no AC ) i use one of those chepo clip on fans and blow it accross the top of the tank between the tank top an dthe llight,because the temp WILL go up but with the fan the tank stays good. I took the top off two weeks ago to see what it would be like without it and nothing in my tank seemed to know the diff. I have a auto top off and I did notice that I had to fill my top off res sooner. don't know if any of this helps but that is my experience.

[kelpforest]

I had one on my 10g, took it off and on, never noticed a big diff

[512148048]

a 10 gallon with 2 X 65 watt pc is a little much isnt it? i dont like glass personaly but i would put it on for the fact that i have had 4 carpet surfing fish

[dhoffroad]

there are also other issues while I was looking at my tank a little bit ago a snail got onto one of my water outlets from my SCWD and it just happened to be the one that is aimed towards the water surface a little more than the other to help break up the water surface any way the snail was on the bottom part of the flair and that made the water shoot up higher it got all over the inside of the top glass cover if the cover was not there there would have been water all over the place.

[tabwyo]

I biult a pc hood for my 10. It cost about $30 and took an afternoon. The light were all salvaged parts though. The lights are aprox 8 inches off the water and I'll never use glass or plexy as a cover again. Too big of a pain to keep clean. PC's do not pose a big heat issue but even though my DIY canopy has a couple small fans. I do top off daily but it doesn't bother me. Most of my make up is kalk supplied by a drip set up.

[tabwyo]

But I would consider egg crate if you have "carpet surfers". Even though the hood I built is fully enclosed I guess it would be possible for a critter to jump and get stuck in the hood. Fried fish anyone?