Egg crate cutting light intensity

[krish]

Hello all,

I picked up a pair of purple firefish. Now these are excellent

jumpers, so i had to cover the tank with egg crate. I run

2x250W iwasakis and the lamps are about 8" above water.

 

After placing the egg crate, i can see that the light intensity

has been reduced. Now, i am beginning to believe that when

i replace the sakis with say 10K lamps, it might look darker.

 

Is there a good alternative to egg crate that will accomplish

the same.

 

I cool the tank with 2 fans in the canopy hooked up to a

dual stage temp controller. Placing glass  cover is a

possibility.

 

The tank is a euro braced one, so the top open area is

already less due to the bracing.

 

tnx for reading.

 

-krish

[michaelg]

If you have a canopy- just make sure there are no holes for them to fly out.  If you have overflows, gutterguard works well (or for any other holes).  You want to keep them out of overflows and prevent them from landing on the floor.  Otherwise, if the canopy is "sealed" up, I wouldn't worry about it.  To be honest- the eggcrate stuff won't keep them from getting out- but may make it hard for them to get back into the water.

[krish]

michael,

The canopy is open about 6 inches in the back. It has 2

4" round holes on either side for the fans. Except for this, it

is closed all around.

I can remove the eggcrate and instead seal the back with

the eggcrate or chicken mesh( the one that is plastic

coated - green colored on from HD). That would keep air flow.

 

Is it possible that if they leap and land on the glass brace,

they will wriggle/jump/whatever and go back into the

water.??

The glass brace is like say 7" wide on either sides and

is about 4" wide on the front and back. Due to the lights,

the glass is warm.

 

I have a mesh around the overflow, so they don't go into the

overflow chambers.

 

The fish look great. I have all the livestock depicted

in the front page of the wamas website

 

-krish

[michaelg]

I would do what you describe.  If they land on the brace- they should be able to wiggle back into the water.

[pez]

Try turning the eggcrate over.  The walls of the eggcrate are acutally angled to reduce light in one direction and increase light in the other direction.

 

Also, you can put a 4" (or 6") guard up around the parameter of the tank.  Generally fish can't jump 4" above the water line, so they will not be able to jump over the guard.  The only issue is the overflows.  I had a yellow wrasse that like to jump into the overflows, but the guards kept him in the tank.

 

-Tom