Radcliffe

SO, as I plan further for m 55 gallon...

I am looking at light, and I want a heavily planted set up. The lights I am looking at have legs to raise the light and the heat of the light up from the surface of the water. So, is having an open top a possible thing? My other option is getting a glass top, which I think would be fine too. I keep seeing the show photos of the open top ones and they are so amazing, and I am wondering about water lilies in an aquarium setting.

Also, I would be wanting to avoid DBF, so I would need to stick to strickly non-jumping fish. Yeah, it is looking like a glass top is necessary- but would I still be able to try water lilies?

Thanks experts for any advice you may have!

--R

hamstermann

DBF? Death by Fleeing?

Radcliffe

Yup- Death by Floor :-)

armadillo

How awful.

griffin

i've never done this, but i would think that if you wanted both lilies and a glass top, you could just lower the water level so that you can have both? might not work so well with a shorter tank though - i'm not sure how tall a 55 gal is.

hamstermann

I learned recently that water lillies need lots of light in order to bloom, so if you do this, you'll need to be meticulous about keeping the glass top clean, which is no easy feat. mine's constantly clouding over from the offsrapy of the bubbles from the bubbler.

darkwolf29a

If you want an open top, you could try the eggcrate method. Your favorite home center ( Menard's, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc) should have plastic lighting cover in the lighting section. It's got a lot of uses, I have found and aquarium covers are one of them. I'm not sure if the holes would be small enough for guppies, but bigger fish will work.