wintercool97 Posted March 22, 2004 Share Posted March 22, 2004 I have noticed that some people have their light right over the water, while others have a glass or acrylic top between the water and the light. (I hope I have made this clear!) So my question is what is best? At the moment I have the light on the hood that came with the 10 gal tank. It has an acrylic divider between my light and the water, the problem is that the salt build up on the top makes me feel like the full potential of my light is not reaching the aquarium. What are some alternatives? Cut out the acrylic? Mount the lights on some legs and trash the old top? Please advise, Thanks! Link to comment
drewmd. Posted March 22, 2004 Share Posted March 22, 2004 either way is fine. the only thing about putting a divider between the light and the water is your reducing the effectiveness of the light. generally not by very much though. and as far as the salt build up on your divider, thats just something your gonna have to live with if you want to keep that divider in there. every 3 days or so take it out and clean it. you can take the divider out but then you will have to top off more often because there will be more evaporation. either way you choose to do it is up to you and is fine. but one question: what type of light did your tank come with? i have found that with a lot of 10 gallon tanks that come with everything already installed the lighting is not very sufficient and you will need to upgrade. especially if you ever decide you wanna keep corals and inverts. Link to comment
joekr Posted March 22, 2004 Share Posted March 22, 2004 wintercool, thanks for asking that! I had the smae question! I bought a piece of plxiglass at home depot for mine! Link to comment
wintercool97 Posted March 22, 2004 Author Share Posted March 22, 2004 I have and 32watt CustomSeaLife 14 SmartLite Retrofit in it. Thanks for replying so fast! I may just put it on some legs. I think topping off my water every day would be a lot less work than trying to scrub that salt off every few days. Boy can that stuff stick on there! Winter Link to comment
wintercool97 Posted March 22, 2004 Author Share Posted March 22, 2004 joekr, That was one thing I was thinking about doing too. But I didn't want to scrub it every other day. Have you put it on yet? How often dose it get all crusty? Do you like the way it looks? I am just full of Q's today! Winter Link to comment
Boomerblaster Posted March 22, 2004 Share Posted March 22, 2004 Hi! Yes, i had this problem too in the beginning. What i have is my light on clear legs, and i also have a glass top. I like the way the light looks with the legs. Especially if you don't have a canopy than making your lights look good is important. I clean my top whenever it looks bad. I don't scrub mine though, takes too much time. I just run it under the bath faucet! The salt comes off in seconds! I put it back onto the tank, and then just quick wipe off the top on the outside. I like the security of the glass top, for some reason the open top makes me nervous. Like with things sprayed around the tank, cats, things jumping out. I know it isn't best for gas exchange, but unitl i get a canopy, i don't want an open top...! PS!... does anyone know where i could get a nice black canopy for a 20 gallon high! I really need one! Thanks!! -Jonathan Link to comment
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