What sort of hood for reef aquarium?

Question

I have a 55 gallon reef aquarium with some soft corals and a number of fish.
My problem is that the plexiglass covering quickly gets coated with fog, and eventually a salt crust. The result is that a lot of light is being absorbed and scattered rather than penetrating into the tank.
Please offer suggestions on a better hood setup that will:
1- not quickly fog up
2- allow good light penetration
3- not allow my expensive fish to jump to their deaths

Answer 1

I would suggest using an all glass top rather than plexi-glass. They make glass tops that fold open for easy access and come with an adhesive back handle you can stick on. These are really great! I believe they are called Versa-tops. For a 55gal (long style) you should be able to get two 24in glass hoods if yours is the kind with the connecting bridge on the top, or they also make one solid long 48in kind if yours does not have the bridge. They are not too expensive and you can always shop online for a better deal than they cost in fish stores. However, glass tops still can get calcium buildup over time and need to be scraped with a razor blade every few weeks to a month, but they do not fog up.

*I don't actually keep reef aquariums but I hope that this info may be useful anyways.

Answer 2

About the best I've been able to come up with is to use a full canopy with side ventilation (screened) so heat doesn't build up, and attach the light to the inside of the lid.

As long as the light is high enough that it's not splashed by the water, you don't have the problem of loss of light (or corrosion of the fixture), and if it's essentially sealed except for power cords, tubing for canister filters, etc.) the fish end up back in the water if the jump (if you use a traditional HOT filter, they might get into the filter and be able to take another jump backwards out of the tank, so this route needs to be screened - I've found plastic canvas (from craft stores) is cheap, easy to cut, and serves this purpose if needed.

Answer 3

I recommend not keeping a glass canopy or plastic cover over your tank it allows better exchange of gases and oxygen. Some fish are jumpers like Firefish. What kind of fish do you have? Maybe if you drill holes in the plexiglass it will keep your cover from fogging. other than that you might want to get or build a wooden canopy for your tank so you can enclose your top and have it open you can allows install a computer fan to circulate the air or vent the top or sides.

Answer 4

you could use a glass top and see about raising the fixture, you didnt tell if you have a custon canopy or a retail fixture, i will assume retial fixture. . if you have a canopy you can raise the lights and just seal the canopy, if the ligths are a few inches or more above the surfcae that should take care of the problem, with good ventilation fog shouldnt be an issue. sorry its hard without a picturee or a diagram, if you can send a pic of that im sure you would get alot more helpful answers

Answer 5

There are lights that sit high above the aquarium, but you will still need a cover to reduce evaporation and to prevent suicide attempts. You are experiencing one of the biggest complaints of saltwater and brackish hobbyists, called "salt creep". I am not aware of any other options other than glass, which will not do anything to help you. Nobody said salt tanks are easy or low maintenance.

Answer 6

While your puffer may be ok in the tank now eventually he will decide that inverts are tasty. They love shrimp and snails and anything crunchy with an exoskeleton. I would be weary about putting him in with corals a lot of times they will eat the corals and some even nibble on the live rock to keep their beaks trimmed down. Not to mention they will eat any cleaners you will want to have in the tank and they are huge waste producers. I would stick to fish only for puffer fish. good luck!