Those With No Hood...

[LellowFish]

How does it work for you? Do you have trouble with evaporation and, if so, how do you deal with it? What lights do you use?

I ask because the bulb in my hood has gone and, as I don't like the hood anyway, I thought about going hood-less. I know it's done on nano tanks but I guess that's simply because there are no hoods small enough?

If anyone has pictures that would be fabulous. This is the last thing I need to get sorted before cycling so any information and advice would be amazing.

Thanks!

 

[tenohfive]

My community tank was open topped until recently, and I did notice significant evaporation. I spoke to a local glazier and had a few cheap sheets of 4mm glass made up, and have sliders now instead - much tidier and less hassle. Not to mention more secure.

 

[jacko32]

my 65 gallon was open topped with just the arcadia light unit over it i just topped the water up everyday not great though in my opinion there better with atleast evaporation covers on my roof and parts of the walls went black with mold i had to scrub them before decorating

 

[Baccus]

All bar 2 of my tanks have no lid/ hood. One of the tanks that has a sheet of glass and a fluro light that sits on top gets so hot we had to put some steel square tube off cuts ( thank goodness hubby always has that sort of stuff lieing around the yard/shed) under neath the light so the whole thing got a bit better air circulation. The other tank that has a hood is a 380 Aqua One where the light is all included in the hood and filter system and even this tank I have noticed can get very hot just from the light and less air circulation between it and the water surface. All my other tanks are open topped and the fish are all fine and I don't really get bad evaporation (and all my tanks are in an uninsulated aluminum car shed in Central Queensland and it can get really hot and humid here as well as cold in winter) Even the Khuli loaches that are in a deep sided open topped tank have not commited surcide by leaping over the top and they are all reaching max size. Personally I like the look of a hooded tank but at the same time have had them and found them to be annoying when you need to do something quickly in the tank but the hood part that opens is almost always to small making you take the whole thing off anyway. Besides I think my green tree frogs would disown me if I sealed off their swim tanks. The frogs are wild but often get in the shed and have a little dip in the tanks. Hooded or non hooded it really all depends on your persoanl preferance, funds, and where the tank is ulimately set up in the house and also your local weather conditions.

 

[tribalbrit]

My 750 litre is opened topped, I get a little bit of evaporation but not enough to bother about and as I do a weekly water change that tends to avoid any other top ups.
What you can see at the top of the photo is the glazing strap not the water level.
I have eight t5's above it.
I do get the odd jumper though.

 

[nurglespuss]

I was running my nano open topped, but, after a pitbull plec got a little too active and jumped out, I now use a cover slide.

I was getting about 0.5 cm evaporation a day before, now its virtually non existent

 

[mattbleasby]

I have one of my tanks open topped most of the time, I do have a hood for it though

 

[LellowFish]

The tank is currently in the living room out of direct sunlight but it does have wall on two sides. It is, however, far enough away from the walls for me to get my arm behind it. The room is normally warm (especially now that Summer temperatures are here) and the heating keeps it warm in the Winter.

I'm trying to see if I can find a glass cover and a light at the moment but the cover is proving difficult.

 

[OldMan47]

I have a number of tanks with no original equipment type hood. In most cases, I have used a sheet of glass or acrylic to prevent excessive evaporation. Adding lighting is easy. Fixtures are made with little legs that can hold the light up a few inches or light strips can even be hung above the tank.