To Cover or Not To Cover?

[syaeger]

I'm upgrading my lights to a Coralife 96 W PC. The light fixture will be mounted on legs about 2" over the tank. Should I put a glass or acrylic cover over the tank to prevent rapid water evaporation and some of the critters from escaping? Or, would the cover disrupt the light? Here's my tank specs and livestock:

 

Tank Specs:

10 Gal

Aquatec 5-15 HOB Filter

Penguin 550 PH

50 W Ebo-Jager Heater

15 W NO (will be upgrading to Coralife 96 W PC quad unit)

10 lbs LR

Live Sand/DSB

 

Water Param:

Temp: 78F

SG: 1.023

PH: 8.2

AM: 0

NI: 0

NA: 10

 

Livestock:

1 Ocellaris Clownfish

1 Cleaner Shrimp

1 Red-Spotted Star Fish

2 Red-leg Hermits

1 Blue-leg Hermit

5 Astrea Snails

2 Bumble Bee Snails

1 Turtle Crab

[DeskJockey]

Well judging from your current livestock I wouldnt worry to much about jumpers or stuff crawling out. Yes clowns have jumped before but they dont have a habit of doing it like a wrasse or goby.

 

I would try to do it without the cover for a week or so to see how much evap you get and watch your temp levels. This way you can see whats effected. If your temp is already running high then you might not want to cover it and just add an auto-topoff to combat evap.

 

BTW yes the lid does filter some light when you have one. Depending on if its glass or acrylic it would filter more or less.

[surfy]

I like using a glass cover over my aquariums. I have a two inch gap in the back so it is not completely covered that way there is some evap cooling and gas exchange.

The glass also makes it safer so you dont drop your lights into the tank on accident, and keeps alot of dust and stuff out.

Use a fan if you put a cover on or else your tank might start over heating. On really hot days you can always take the cover off.

[TiGs]

I use a plexi glass cover only when my lights are off, helps evap stay down. Take the cover off when lights are on.