jds
New Member
I have a new SCA 180 PNP and I was wondering since I have a sump for gas exchange, would glass be ok? I would prefer glass because I want to reduce the evaporation and of course need to keep jumpers in check.
Glass or Screen cover for jumpers and evaporation ?
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Do you know what your Ph sits at normally? You might find that the extra gas exchange will help in the future. I started out with glass and eventually opened mine up so that I could raise my ph a little and it helped. I just use some screens now 
jds
New Member
Brand new tank, not even set up yet. I had no issues with PH with my other Nano and cube saltwater tanks. So, I was asking if an open sump below would be fine with glass top cover. Will be a mixed reef setup.
You will lose some PAR from your lights to the glass. We started with a glass lid then went to screen. The glass was heavy and always had to worry about it breaking. Evaporative cooling from the surface can be helpful in the summer (we've blown fans across the surface of our tank before to keep it cool on the hottest days). Your ATO should keep the water level/salinity stable as water evaporates. A protein skimmer will also give you plenty of gas exchange if you add one.
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Screens the way to go. I ran a true open top for years....lost some fish...Order the screen material on Amazon for cheap and then go to Home Depot and get the frame. The one brs sells is just an aluminum frame that I could have gotten at Home Depot for a fraction of the cost..live and learn
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Yeah, I had to wash my glass lid once a week or it would be so cloudy.
Also, I like being able to feed pellets right through the net
I just looked it up and saw that it comes with a 68 gallon sump built in? This thing is freaking cool! Your sump is almost the size of my tank haha you may find that that’s enough gas exchange. It’s tough for me to say since it’s a 180g. Others on here would be better suited to answer this than me
We built these screen lids last year to fit over our 120 after we had a couple jumpers. Our return and overflow are HOB so we had to accommodate those corners when cutting it out. It's screwed together and is still working fine to this day.
Wow these look uncanny to mine
I have a 75g with a hob on the left and return on the right. The shapes are almost identical.Yeah, when we added an automatic fish feeder it ended up going on top on the light bar. The granules fall right through the screen. No need to modify the layout to fit another piece of equipment.Wow these look uncanny to mine
That’s the same way I feed mine! Auto feeder right through the net. It helps when I have to go on trips. Great minds think alike haha
jds
New Member
Thanks guys, yes it comes with a huge sump and the skimmer. I will probably go with the screen over choosing the glass. Where is a good place to find white screen with 1/4" or smaller openings to drop pellets right in? I went to Home Depot and just saw the small mesh screens for screen doors.
jds
New Member
Wow, ah the tank is 60" by 24" wide and 29" deep, so two screens side by side to cover 5'X2'? And thanks for the offer and no problem if you don't have enough left over.
~34" x 65" of it in one piece if you can use it.
