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Serious Condensation

777james777

777james777

Fish Crazy
Joined
Jul 26, 2023
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Warrington
Current situation -

160 L tank, 100x40x40cm with plastic lid and built in LED light, The temperature of the water is currently 28 degrees.

(A little warmer than when the fish will be in it as I have been advised to do this to speed up the fishless cycle.)

The inside roof and 80cm LED is covered in condensation , im concerned for the obvious reason water and electricity don't mix. Do I need a cover/barrier between the water and the light? so that the condensation will hit the cover. Or will that block the light that i need for my plants?
 
Most lights that are included with hooded tanks are designed with this in mind and should be alright 👍🏻
 
There must always be a sheet/pane of glass or plastic (acrylic) between the light and the water surface. This not only prevents water affecting the light unit itself, it prevents water from hitting the light diodes. And fish that jump, and many of them do in darkness.
 
Very few tanks in the UK have cover glasses. My first tank was a 60 litre Marina; then a 54 litre Eheim and then a 125 litre Juwel. None had cover glasses. The Marina's light was in a raised part of the lid with a sheet of glass level with the rest of the lid sealing the light in but the other two had end caps sealing the pin ends of the fluorescent tubes and the sockets. The glass part of the tubes was exposed. With the Juwel tank, the tubes projected down from the lid into the tank so it was impossible to use anything between the lights and the water.

My current large tank does have cover glasses and a lid, but this was a custom built tank and they did things differently. The small shrimp tank has cover glasses but no lid, and a clip on light above the cover glass.



@777james777 With your tank, is is possible to to fit anything under the light? I'm thinking of those plastic condensation trays. They sit on top of the tank walls at the edges and the lid sits on top of them. Like this

Condensation Cover Trays

Save yourself time and easily order Aquarium Condensation Cover Trays for your Fish. Use our hassle free unique live food subscription services.
www.feedmyfish.co.uk www.feedmyfish.co.uk

I had one on the 54 litre tank, the downside is trying to feed the fish - you have to lift the lid and condensation tray off the tank, or cut a hole in the tray.
 
Not the best of pictures but you can see here the condensation. And also the space between the top of the water and the bulb is approximately 10cm.
There is plenty of room for a plastic drip tray.

I have a smaller tank shan I was younger probably a 100 litre one and it had a drip tray.

I did think about the feeding. But I would quite happily cut a hole in my drip tray. I think with the amount of condensation I’m gonna need one!
 

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Also @Essjay totally of topic question. What’s the best temperature for the water during the fishless cycle? - ps testing day tomorrow
 
That is a lot of condensation. If the lamp is an LED with the transformer located outside the canopy there is little danger to yourself from the electricity because it is likely dc no more than 20 volts, with limited amperage. But, you risk getting water into the lights even though they may be sealed, consider that every time you start them they will be cold, heating the air within the tube pushing air out, then when you turn off the lights they will cool pulling air and maybe water in. All seals fail eventually.

I would put some sort of glass cover between the tank and the lights if it was my setup.
 
Just put a coverglass on the tank to stop fish jumping out and to stop the evaporation.

Unless you have live plants in the tank, you don't need a light except to see the fish.
 
Iv had a look online and there like £25 for a piece of plastic 😂 I’d like it to be glass but obviously I need to feed the little guys so plastic with a hole cut would have been better
 
Essjay said:
Very few tanks in the UK have cover glasses. My first tank was a 60 litre Marina; then a 54 litre Eheim and then a 125 litre Juwel. None had cover glasses. The Marina's light was in a raised part of the lid with a sheet of glass level with the rest of the lid sealing the light in but the other two had end caps sealing the pin ends of the fluorescent tubes and the sockets. The glass part of the tubes was exposed. With the Juwel tank, the tubes projected down from the lid into the tank so it was impossible to use anything between the lights and the water.

My current large tank does have cover glasses and a lid, but this was a custom built tank and they did things differently. The small shrimp tank has cover glasses but no lid, and a clip on light above the cover glass.



@777james777 With your tank, is is possible to to fit anything under the light? I'm thinking of those plastic condensation trays. They sit on top of the tank walls at the edges and the lid sits on top of them. Like this

Condensation Cover Trays

Save yourself time and easily order Aquarium Condensation Cover Trays for your Fish. Use our hassle free unique live food subscription services.
www.feedmyfish.co.uk www.feedmyfish.co.uk

I had one on the 54 litre tank, the downside is trying to feed the fish - you have to lift the lid and condensation tray off the tank, or cut a hole in the tray.
Click to expand...
These are more reasonabley priced but unfortunately I need 15x48 inches :(
 
We cut a corner off single piece coverglass and made a triangle about 6 x 4 x4 inches and glued a handle to it. We put a support strip on one side of the triangle to support it on the rest of the coverglass. The other 2 sides of the triangle rested on the support strips on the tank. When you feed the fish, you lift the triangle up and put the food in, then put the triangle back in place.

The other thing we did was a 2 piece coverglass. We cut it lengthwise so both halves we even. We stuck a handle to one piece and that was used at the front of the tank. The second piece without a handle was used to cover the back half of the tank. When you want to feed the fish, you simply lift the front half and feed them.
 
Colin_T said:
We cut a corner off single piece coverglass and made a triangle about 6 x 4 x4 inches and glued a handle to it. We put a support strip on one side of the triangle to support it on the rest of the coverglass. The other 2 sides of the triangle rested on the support strips on the tank. When you feed the fish, you lift the triangle up and put the food in, then put the triangle back in place.

The other thing we did was a 2 piece coverglass. We cut it lengthwise so both halves we even. We stuck a handle to one piece and that was used at the front of the tank. The second piece without a handle was used to cover the back half of the tank. When you want to feed the fish, you simply lift the front half and feed them.
Click to expand...

Nice, so this is a custom made one, do you have a picture, Id be interested to see :) if not no worries
 
The ideal temperature for cycling is the upper 20's C. Higher than 30 won't speed it up any more, but the mid 20s will be slightly slower.

You could try leaving a feeding flap open while the water temp is raised for cycling. You will get condensation in the room though and you'd need to top up when the water level drops (with dechlorinated water) Once the cycle finishes, you'll turn the heater down as most fish we keep need 25 C or a degree or two below that.
 
Im struggling to find one that fits the largest I can find is 90 x 30 cm and my tank is 100 x 40CM
I may look into trying to make one!
 
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