Cover under canapy

[ansonluna]

I know there are never stupid questions...only stupid people....but I am a newbe. All the SW aquariums I have seen either have a canapy or no cover at all. But I have read that covers are good for head reduction, less water loss, and critter escapes. However, my literature failed to specifiy if a cover should be used under a canapy. What is the general concensus? And by cover I mean glass...I am not THAT new :-D .

[Ram_Puppy]

Ansoluna, welcome to MAAST!

It is really your call with a 'cover', you reduce evaporation, evaporation however cools your tank, however, on a small tank salinity stability may be more important than temp, especially if your not using metal halide. 'covers'as you say, can reduce fish death by jumping, but they also reduce the amount of effective light that penetrates into the tank, which is really only an issue if you are keeping light sensetive corals and anemones.

Another thing to consider, is that 'covers' build up salt deposits (salt creep), however, lol, they also keep the salt off your bulbs if you don't have a cover on them (which is essentially covering the other way.)

I personally run a 30 hex without it's glass cover, I used to keep it on, but forgot one mantenance day and never put it on since.

My personal opinion, is no glass cover, if you go with a canopy, add a fan or two, and enjoy.

[Brett Wilson]

You may also run into CO2 problems with a covered tank... gas exchange happens at the surface of the water and it would be highly reduced if the tank were covered and you weren't running a sump or something that gets fresh air...
Poor gas exchange and you will have reduced oxygen in the water which the fish wont like and you will most likely have PH stability issues as well...

I would run a canopy with a fan or two instead of a glass cover... but sometimes prefer tanks with no cover or canopy at all...

[DeletedAccount]

I cover one of my tanks under the canopy and leave one of them open. Has to do with the inhabitants for me. I have some possible jumpers in one of my tanks.

Welcome to MAAST!

[cailan]

like everyone else said so far, covers are good in keeping fish from jumping. but then again, i had a dwarf lion in my 30 gallon that was covered and he made the perfect jump out of a hole in the back where i had a powerhead. he was a goner.

even with that, i still don't like covers personally. two of my tanks have pc lights and the glass tops just get in the way too much. like ram_puppy said they collect alot of salt which needs cleaning off alot.

oh, and welcome to maast

[cailan]

like everyone else said so far, covers are good in keeping fish from jumping. but then again, i had a dwarf lion in my 30 gallon that was covered and he made the perfect jump out of a hole in the back where i had a powerhead. he was a goner.

even with that, i still don't like covers personally. two of my tanks have pc lights and the glass tops just get in the way too much. like ram_puppy said they collect alot of salt which needs cleaning off alot.

oh, and welcome to maast

[GaryP]

I had a black oscellaris jump through a cooling fan. The fan was off at the time.

Gary