Glass Cover?
- Thread starter Davidl
- Start date
orion, is your canopy easliy removable, or does it have a section you can take off to reach down into your tanks? I'm building one next month and I need to think of how I can keep my fish from jumping out, and still be able to reach in there to feed shrimp and clean the glass.
A combination of manymethods. First canopy we built had 4 short doors in the front that flipped up--you had about 6 inches X 20 inches of working room, whole thing had to be removed to replace light bulbs (we had 2 65's next to each other, canopy covered them both = 6 foot long) and for any serious work inside the tanks. For the 120's, we built a 10 inch tall rectangle, open on both sides that sits on top of the tank, with 2 doors (about 8 inches X 20 inches, swing to one side), and a top piece that sits on this rectangle and can lift off, leaving the rectangle sitting on the tank. The lights can all be replaced by just pulling this top off--ballasts for the lights all are easily unplugged, cords go through the cut outs in the back of the rectangle. This prevents jumpers--most fish won't make it more than 8 inches out of the water. Not as easy if you don't have built in overflows, since you must have cuts for the tubing to pass through, but still do-able. Requires a chair to clean the very bottom, but still lots of room to work.
If never liked glass covers untill one day I was cleaning my tank and splashed a little tiny bit of water on my light and BANG my lights exploded. I thought it would be okay since they were off but they were still hot enough. Talk about a mess not to mention the 175.oo to replace them. I use glass now and am very carefull!!
See, I have been thinking that without the glass, salt creep and/or moisture would harm the lights. So, you are saying that if they are raised enough and the box is high enough, it won't collect salt creep? It's still enclosed by the box, right? It would seem like no matter how high the lights are, if it is enclosed by the box, then moisture would collect in the top. What am I missing here? Maybe it's the fans.
Fresh water evaporates... most metal halide/any lighting has a shiled on the lights to block splashing and harmful wavelenths of light, like UV. There are benifits for not having an glass top on the tank becuase you can have better airation and if you had the shield up higher, like in a costom canopy, you would have to clean it alot less. Right now i have Coralife Power Compacts on my 29 with the glass cover but I have to clean the cover every week because the current in my tank sometimes touches the top and from me feeding the fish and removing the lights it gets dirty. Its all opinion though, taking it off or leaving it on doesn't directly harm your fish, so do whatever you want?
EDIT: I mean that there shouldn't be salt creep at the top of the canopy unless you had the water on your hand and were touching something, since the freshwater is what evaporats(for the first sentence i typed) and there will be some moisture but the Halide lighting is very hot so people put fans in the tank to push the air from the canopy... out of it. Which would lessen some moisture... some have a fan blowing across the top of the water too.
EDIT: I mean that there shouldn't be salt creep at the top of the canopy unless you had the water on your hand and were touching something, since the freshwater is what evaporats(for the first sentence i typed) and there will be some moisture but the Halide lighting is very hot so people put fans in the tank to push the air from the canopy... out of it. Which would lessen some moisture... some have a fan blowing across the top of the water too.
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This may explain the disconnect, then. My lights don't have a protective cover over them, the bulbs are exposed to open air. This is why I saw the need for the glass b/c I have salt creep buildup on the glass and my lights sit right on top of the glass. I don't like this lighting set up, but just don't quite know how to go about fixing the problem. I have 2 light systems, actually, each in their own holder/cover. One is a compact, the other is a double. They both sit right on the top of the tank and would have no cover between the bulbs and the water if I took the glass top off. I also can't leave the glass closed in the front b/c the lights (not having any sort of fan in them) raise the temp of the water too much without at least the circulation of air that comes in by propping the front glass pieces up. Of course, when I get the fairy wrasse, I can't do this anymore b/c he will jump out of that. See my problem?
You could leave the glass on and find a way to raise the lights off the top a little bit, this way you can still open the glass top to put food in or whatever, my coralife compacts had "legs" you could buy to raise it up a little bit, this would let any draft in the room go under them, and would help to keep them clean.
Oh my gosh, I forgot about that. One day at work a fire marshal came in asking all about our lights for tanks. Come to find out hoods often cause fires from the salt and corrosion. I mean they cause A LOT of fires. I could'nt believe it.
