[TekWarren]

I use 3 brooder domes on my 20 long with 13w CFL's. I rest them on a strip of glass so they are pretty close to the surface. I keep floating plants in this tank also to break up the light.

 

[TekWarren]

I rest my brooder lamps right on the glass. I think my domes are the 10" ones or close to it. I watched the temps of mine using an infrared temp gun. If I remember correctly the dome itself only got up to the 80's F so not really "hot". Originally I used a full 20 long glass top but I removed the hinge and did not use the plastic flap so there was an inch or so front and back of open space. Currently I am using just the back section of glass centered on the tank solely to sit the lights on. part of the domes is above open water now but mostly on the glass...no moisture issues but I only keep this tank around 70-72. If I find 10w CFL's I might downgrade. I was getting some green algae on the floramax substrate but between the floaters, ramshorn snails and maybe the ghost shrimp it is mostly gone now.

I don't have much for plants as I was going for more of an open look on this tank and it is still fairly young (started new years eve!). I have frogbit floating, 2 anubias, dwarf hairgrass (looks great but not spreading...somewhat expected in low tech), and then I have a really cool chain sword? -I should have this plant ID'd as I'm not sure exactly what it is. It is very short with narrow leaves that is sending runners and plantlets all over. Some leaves are reddish brown...I'm letting this plant do what it wants as it doesn't seem likely the dwarf hairgrass will carpet fully...Should get a pic up.

 

[TekWarren]

Isn't it dangerous to use clamp on lights on an open tank? How long does a floramax substrate usually last? Would you have to completely replace it when it runs out of nutrients? Thanks for your reply.

In my current setup, the majority of the dome is resting on the one larger section of the glass lid I am still using. I took the front section off of the glass off and have the remaining section centered on the tank (I meant to take a pic last night, sorry). The lamp itself is completely blocked from the water by the glass. There is a very small chance the lamps could fall partially into the water but my tank is in a place where the cords and such are not touched or bumped. I don't have any small kids, do have dogs but they stay out of things. The lamps don't move but I may still look into making something to hold them in place for piece of mind. Ideally I would make something to hang them from and not use the glass at all. I have floating plants and to much humidity can start to break down the surface foliage which is why I took most of the glass top away.

I don't think floramax will become totally inert...at least not in the lifetime of the tank. I dose EI on my main tank and will sometimes do one dose each of EI macros and micros on my 20 long depending on how things are looking. I also am up do dosing 2.5ml of metricide on this tank now. The floramax is very porous so it can hold nutrients that are not consumed.

I was actually wrong above when I said my dwarf hair grass wasn't spreading. Upon closer inspection last night, I AM actually seeing some new growth away from the original plugs I planted so that is neat for a low tech tank with no real CO2.