[DC.UNC]

I have a question, i am wondering i am running my 46 bow without the glass top on the aquarium and i have my compact fluorescent lighting fixture on its legs above the tank. If i remove the acrylic or plastic cover will i get more light into my tank? The surface is calm so i am not that worried about getting water splashed onto the lighting. Do some of the rays of light get absorbed by that protective lens? If there is not any splashing on the surface is there a point to keep it on the tank? Hope someone can help me answer this question.
Thanks

 

[epicfish]

You'd get more light...if you have a clean acrylic lens though, the increase is negligible.

The only problem isn't water spray, per se, but rather water vapor corroding the endcaps. Not sure how often this happens, but my open-top tanks evaporate maybe two inches a week, leading me to believe there's quite a bit of water vapor near the tanks.

I'd leave them on.

 

[yoink]

I'd leave it on too. Instead of the water spots getting on the easily cleanable cover, it will get on the very hard to clean bulb.

 

[DC.UNC]

I keep it pretty clean so i guess there will be no difference. I didnt think about the evaporation, I will leave them on.
Thanks
D

 

[spypet]

The surface is calm so i am not that worried about getting water splashed onto the lighting.

if that were true, then it the cover would already be clean enough as to not inspire it's removal :flick:

 

[DC.UNC]

I was wondering if it absorbs or reflects any of the intensity away from the water... it does have a few water spots, but for the most part its clean spypet!

 

[crazy loaches]

I personally could never keep up with cleaning the glass tops, but I am pretty lazy
I am not sure how the glass tops compare to glass shileds on MH lighting but the glass sheilding often found on MH does absorb PAR. You can see spectral graphs for varius bulbs on Sanjay Joshi's webpage, some allow you to select wether or not to have a shield. Sanjay's Reef Lighting Info Pages it seems pretty common for them to drop 10-20% when using the glass.

Edit> for anyone looking at Sanjays spectral graphs the only ones that allow you to select between having or not having a shiled are the double ended lights, the single ended ones were only tested w/o shields as there is no need for them.

 

[PasD]

Leaving the shield on make for easy cleaning if water splashes on the lights. I regret not keeping the shields on my lights.

 

[attack11]

all shields stop some of the par getting through. grim reefer or sanjay at reefcentral cover this in a lot of their posts about metal halide/t5 lighting with par readings.