Tank lid on or off. Pros - Cons?

[cato]

Leave tank lid on or off? Pros - Cons?

 

[mystikdragon7]

With the lid on you can prevent jumping fish from jumping out and killing themselves. Also with the lid on it helps to decrease water evaporation.
With the lid off more light is able to penetrate the water and more oxygen is able to get into the water, better gas exchange.

So if you don't mind topping off your tank every day and don't have fish that jump then I would leave the top off. I have no cover on my tank and I have no problems.

 

[WaterKeeper]

Good summation Matt and, if I may add, covered tanks run hotter than uncovered tanks due to lack of evaporative cooling on the covered. Some covered tanks also are more apt to have low pH due to CO₂ buildup.

 

[Andrew]

I don't use a glass lid or anything. I use eeg-crate now until I get my fully fitted canopy made and the reef lights.

 

[cato]

Thanks guys.

 

[kane4187]

I use egg crate to keeps them from jumping out.

 

[PatMayo]

I had a heat problem with my 46 because I had a glass top. I also had a ph of around 7.9 to 8. I was able to remove half the glass on my tank and now the heat problem has been eliminated. My temp runs max during the day with lights on 80.4 and at night low is 78.8. But also my ph is now running at 8.4.

But I do have a lot of evaporation. I add water every day. It's only a 46 gallon so it's not that big of a deal.

The benfits outweigh the need to add water more frequently.

Regards,

Pat

 

[BucNtears]

where do you buy egg crate ?

 

[FriendToNemo]

I run my 90g with a 6" canopy that's covered with eggcrate. At 900gph it goes through a gallon a day. The thinking is that if I'm evaporating at that high rate, I'm reducing my need for water changes. The Auto-TopOff (a trickle from the RO) is keeping the level up.

Egg Crate is avaialble from Lowe's in the lighting department.

 

[BucNtears]

Thanks Friend

 

[kane4187]

Home depot also has it in the lighting department

 

[Scuba_Dave]

I built a canopy for my 125g. There are 3 hole sdrilled in the middle top for wiring & to allow some heat to escape

Each side flips up for access - the middle brace is only about 6" wide - steel re-inforced

In the summer I flip up the back 1/2 to allow more heat to escape

I use the glass top on 1/2 of my 75g fuge/frag tank in the basement. I have MH on the open side
4' 80w NO over tank - which grows some great coralline

 

[clsanchez77]

The thinking is that if I'm evaporating at that high rate, I'm reducing my need for water changes.

Not true.

Water Changes remove 'polluted' water from the aquarium and replace it with 'clean' water. Top-off is just adding 'clean' water with out removing the 'polluted' water. Please reconsider. Please see the Reef Chemistry Forum if you need a thorough explanation.

Back to topic.
I ran my tanks in the past without the glass top. In my last tank (and in my next) I used eggcrate as I found a fish sitting on top my glass brace The eggcrate lowered my evaporation a little but still aloud for the gas exchange. Also no additional fatalities.

Chris