Glass v Plexiglass v Open Top

[Falconwithaboxon]

I have a 45 gallon tank and I am looking to replace the lid for it. I want a glass lid as I just bought a nice light that I can't use with a black lid. The lid dimensions would be 36" L x 12" W. I cannot find anyone selling what I need so I was thinking about making my own or doing it lidless.

If I make my own it would either be glass or plexiglass. I was just wondering which one might be better in you guys's opinion. Price matters but not a ton.

I was also thinking about just running my tank lidless but I am I'm sure if any of my fish would try to escape. Lidless looks the best in my opinion and I do have a second tank I could move stuff to. I'd prefer not to move anything around but if it would just be too difficult/expensive to do class or plexiglass, I will move whatever fish would be an issue, unless unless it is one of my big guys.
Stock:
2 Angels (Unknown Type)
2 Opaline Gourami
8 Black Veil Tetra
6 Pearl Danio
8 Emerald Cory
2 Julii Cory
1 King Tiger Pleco
1 Colombian Spotted Pleco
4 Mystery Snail + Unkown number of babies
4 Nerite Snail
Tall stem plants and ferns

 

[Slaphppy7]

I prefer lids, helps minimize evaporation, and keeps unwanted things out of the tank...as well as preventing escape for the inhabitants.

You can buy the plastic hinge separately, and have a glass shop cut your pieces for you, it's inexpensive.

 

[PorshaF]

My 75 is lidless where as all my others have lids. The tank does lose water to evaporation very fast even though that tank is in AC, 68°F room temp. I do water changes in the 75 once a week and lose about 1.5-2 gallons of water between changes from evaporation

 

[PheonixKingZ]

All of my tanks are lidless. I’ve never had a problem with fish jumping out, even though the fish I keep are all “notorious jumpers”.

Not having a lid does require more maintenance, because of water evaporation. Just to give you an idea of how fast water evaporates, my 20g and 29g loose about 2 gallons of water a week.

 

[Wills]

My tank is open top which looks great but I do worry about jumpers. I've bought a D&D Red Sea Jump Guard which is a metal frame with wire netting. I'm finding it tough to work out how to fit it as I have quite a bit of equipment in and out of the tank (despite best efforts, though I've just realised I dont need to do cut outs for my lights which changes things a bit...) But when they are done well it does look good.

If you go for glass or acrylic go for glass people always say acrylic bows eventually.

Wills

 

[Uberhoust]

Relative humidity in my home without the tanks is about 55%, with the tanks that jumped to 65%, without lids I started to have issues with moisture and relative humidity sometimes as high as 80%, so I went back to lids.

Some Plexiglass, ie most of the stuff from HomeDepot, absorbs moisture and can sag, so I only use glass covers now.

AC generally removes moisture from the air which will increase the amount of evaporation from the tanks.

If I could go without lids it would sure be nice to have a tank with emergent plants.