can you fill your water level of a tank all the way up?

[gagaliya]

Hey guys, two questions

1) Can you fill the water level all the way up, so it touches the top panel of your tank. You know those reef tanks where the top panel is made of see thru acrylic. Can you fill the water level all the way up touching the tank's ceiling?

2) How high can you have the water level for the aquaclear power filters before they fail? Will it be fine as long as the water level is lower than the output waterfall thingy. So instead of:

water->
____
@@|
@@|
@@|
~~~~~~ <---- water level

i will have:

water->
____
@@|~~~~~ <-- water level
@@|
@@|

 

[Teelie]

1) You can but you run the risk of water spilling out onto the floor or from shorting out the lights or other electrical equipment near the top.

2) Never used them so I don't know.

 

[Slappy*McFish]

You can fill it up as high as it will go without spilling out of the tank. The filter will not be affected by this, either. Most people fill their tanks almost to the top...I know I do. I have an AllGlass tank and I fill it up to the rim that the hood/lights rest on.

 

[RockabillyChick]

i fill mine to about 1/4" BELOW the small little ledge around the inside of the black part on the top.

 

[joephys]

I fill it up to the bottom of the frame to give my fish a little of room so they don't bonk their head if they jump up a little.

 

[Roan Art]

About ¼" from the top to cut down on surface aggitation and provide a pocket for fish that like to make a dash to the surface now and then.

Roan

 

[rrkss]

I fill mine high enough not to see the waterlevel. It is about 1/4" from the top. Pretty much I fill it until the biowheel starts making splashing noises from the tank being overfilled.

 

[aquarob]

Neat lil drawing. If you are asking if you can fill your tank to where it covers the return-thingy from your HOB filter, then the answer is yes, so long as there is SOME drop from the point the water comes out to the point it enters the tank, you are fine. However, if you fill your tank PAST the point that the water comes out of the filter, your filter will fail to do anything but circulate dirty water around. Hope that makes sense.

Also, I wouldn't suggest filling the tank until it touches your glass tops, because if you do, and you have any gourami, betta or other air-breathing fish, they will die. They must have access to the surface in order to breathe, at least once in awhile. Also, as others have mentioned, some fish like to jump a bit, and if you fill the tank completely full they would bang their fishy heads. Not much fun for little Harpo. =) Take care and I hope that rambling made sense.

 

[carpguy]

There needs to be a surface for gas exchange. You could potentially reduce this by overfilling, esp. with the top panel acrylics. That would be bad.

:dive2:

 

[pbecot01]

Maybe it doesn't mean anything, and I do respect the other oppinions, but I fill my tank to within a 1/4 inch or so of the top, above the filter outlets, routinely.

I don't know why you would say that a filter wouldn't work if the water wasn't dropping off. It still sucks from below and pumps through the media chamber, no?

Maybe with less surface agitation (which is the reason I do it) there will be less oxygen, but until I actually saw my fish distressed I wouldn't worry about it.