Does anyone else use a glass cover between their lights and the water?

I use one, and I clean it every week, but it still gets covered with calcium stains over time because of my hard water. And I don't like to remove it because the hood and lights just sit on the edge of the tank and I'm scared they might fall in. Especially when the cat decides she wants to sleep up there.

With clean cover glas, you'll loose 8% of your light output and 20% if it's dirty. At least that's what I've read somewhere in a Dutch forum. Offcourse if you have lot's of light and you clean it well/periodically I don't see any problems.

I don't know what kind of light you use, if it's T8/T5 there is those IP67 lamp holder. It's suppose to be water resistant even under (!) the water for a few moment. But ofcourse the best thing is to install your light so it won't fall off. If you don't like the cover you can either do this or teach your cat a lesson or two .

The lights and hood came from AH Supply. I keep saying that I'm going to build a little frame for it some day .....it's just that "some day" hasn't arrived yet.

.....and the cat did learn her lesson once, when I had the hood off for cleaning. Went right under and come out rather embarrassed about the whole thing. Stopped her from getting up there for about 6 months but she's old, ya know, and forgets. She's 15 now and gets cold. The lights are so nice and warm.

greenstuff, i have allways used glass between light and tank ,if for no other reason but to keep reflector clean. as far as keeping it clean i think that should be figured in watts per gal, meaning a few more watts to make up for dirty glass. you can make that glass sparkle and the next day it looks terrible from the fish spashing during the night. i would rather be safe with glass between then sorry if light falls into tank for some unknown reason. glass on a 75 or 90 gal tank is large, broke one, then went to expensive plastic. works fine. glass over a tank also helps to keep fish from jumping out and some think that it helps to keep co2 in tank. hanging strong lighting above a tank without glass would be the most desirable senerio,but you need a lot of room for that. regards, cornhusker.