I have seen some tanks without tops on them, and I was wondering if there are any advantages or disadvantages to having them off. I just took the covers off of mine and the light seems a little better in the tank, have not decided if I will leave them off or not.


thank you

Yep, with cover, less loss of water but evaporating water (droplets on the glass) will reduce the light penetration. Without the cover, more water is lost depending on the humidity in the air. My plants are doing better without the cover though.

If you keep fish that are habitual jumpers you probably want a cover, but otherwise the added light and the lack of maintenance needed to keep a cover clean tilt the scale to no cover, in my opinion. I use a cooling fan on my light fixture in any case, so I get a lot of evaporation, but I also use an overflow drain and continuous trickle of water coming in, so the level never changes.

Jumping fish is the main issue.

A nice solution is using the ADA like metal S type hooks that are flatten metal hangers, these hardly detract from the look and the open feel, anmd then you have a thin glass top with a cut out for the hoses.

This is easily removed for open houses, photo shoots, maintenance etc.

Regards,
Tom Barr