[Ziggy]

I've been wanting to get a 60P for a very long time now. Thing is, I HAVE to use a cover glass, especially in the winter, otherwise I loose too much to evaporation and start to have moisture issues in the room.

Trouble is...the cat. Even though we try to keep him off of stuff, there WILL come a time when my back will be turned and he will walk across the top. He does it on my Fluval Flora from time to time (I swear just to tick me off) but that came with some fairly substantial plastic corner pieces which the glass rests on.

So I'm wondering how the ADA cover glass, or more specifically the metal clips, would cope with the weight of a cat. I'm no glass engineer but I fear they will put a lateral stress on the aquarium sidewalls if too much weight is brought to bear on them.

Maybe I'm just paranoid but if anyone with an ADA 60P and cover-glass could share your experiences along these lines, I'd be grateful. Or if anyone has alternate suggestions for how to implement a cover glass I'm all ears.

 

[rick dale]

Cat

My cats use to get on top of my tank. I caught each one , and held them , carefully , and I emphasize , carefully. I dipped there front paws in the water , and never had a problem again. And I don't use tops

 

[Ziggy]

My cats use to get on top of my tank. I caught each one , and held them , carefully , and I emphasize , carefully. I dipped there front paws in the water , and never had a problem again. And I don't use tops

Thanks, but the problem is not that the cat falls into an open aquarium. Like I said, I have to use covers for evaporation reasons and teaching him that there is water UNDER the cover wont stop him from wanting to take a siesta on it.

 

[touch of sky]

This won't solve the issues with the cat, however, a dehumidifier works wonder in a Canadian winter for evaporation and moisture from aquariums. The new ones are more energy efficient, and I run mine in the evening when power rates are less expensive (we are on time of use pricing for electricity).

 

[Ziggy]

We keep the house between 67F (day) and 60F (night) and at those temp even a new so called efficient DH simply cannot extract any meaningful amount of moisture from the air. They claim to work down to 45F but that is marketing slight-of-hand: They wont freeze up at that temp, but they certainly are not extracting moisture either. There are of course the desiccant type, but they are expensive and while they would address moisture in the room, that would actually accelerate evaporation from the aquarium even more.

But that's all academic. I'd rather have an (ugh) framed Aqueon with a butt ugly plastic canopy than get into all that.

We know aquariums can accommodate a fair amount of weight as long as it is applied vertically to the top edges of the glass (who remembers those MASSIVE wood canopies of yesteryear?). The question therefore stands: where the ADA clips apply the weight of the cover glass (and anything on it) somewhat obliquely to the tank glass, at what point does that become a liability...

 

[Straight shooter]

Just leave it uncovered. My cat drinks from it and very rarely splashes the water a little. They just see it as a drinking fountain that humans spend strange amounts of time fussing over. They can go fishing occasionally when they're kittens but they get bored with it as they age.

 

[touch of sky]

I am not arguing with you , everybody's experience is different, but our house is cold at night because we heat with wood and the fire goes out, and I still pour half a bucket of water out of the dehumidifier every morning when we are using it. We use it mainly from October up to about mid-January when there is still a lot of moisture in the air. Once we get into the dead of winter, the outdoor air is dry, and burning the woodstove keeps the humidity low. Just my experience! The dehumidifier works for us and solved the problem of dripping windows, thank goodness. I have 8 aquariums, so it was an issue before we got the dehumidifier.

We had a cat that loved the drink out of the aquarium and walked around on the hoods, but I have mainly the old fashioned type of aquariums and hoods. She particularly loved an open topped aquarium. It was her personal fish soup.

 

[TINNGG]

One of the cats took a flying leap onto daughter's 29 - with cover glass. She was fishing glass out of the tank for some time. The tank had been around longer than we'd had that particular cat, but we'd had no previous issues. So I would say, it depends. Is the cat heavy, and is it active (also, is it a klutz)? The female we've had for years is a dainty thing and while she achieves vertical quite often, her impact on the glass is minimal. That particular cat was heavy, very active, and not very good at jumping, so his flying leap was right in the middle (probably not where he was aiming), and it was too much.

FWIT, I have a 10 gallon full hood with a broken lid support courtesy of one of them.

At least they stopped getting on the 75, but then again, I may have made it a little difficult for them to climb, and for whatever reason, they've been reluctant to jump on it.

 

[joclru]

I had a cat break a 29g Versa-Top on a regular framed tank...doesn't give me a lot of confidence for your situation. Now, my cats got on it several times without breaking it before that...but it only takes one bad landing!