Open Top Tanks

[discus dreamer]

Has anyone got any experience of open top tanks? I fancy getting one of the aqua one garden aquariums and having plants growing right up and out of the water. I guess if you don't use the glass cover you would have to be sure to have only fish that don't jump!
has anyone got one or seen one up and running?
thanks
DD

 

[Gankutsuou]

Much much more common in marine, and it'll be a lot harder to do in fresh I'd imagine. You could get special lights that hang from the cieling, or lights that clip on the back of the tank and go up above the tank.

I'd fancy it myself, But I have fish like African butterfly and Senegal bichirs that would jump in a second.

 

[dasmall1]

My tank is open top, just without plants growing out, yet. I have a pc light fixture with high legs. For the fish, I just have otos and serpae tetras (bottom dwellers) so no fears of "jump outs"

 

[anodized]

i have 2 open top tanks, 55G's. it has advantages, like not getting condensate on lighting fixtures etc (have seen this with some eclipse aquariums)

i have a coralife fixture on top of the tank with the flip up legs.. my alternanthera reineckii (sp?) grows out of the top regularly. occasionally a shrimp will jump...less now that i cut the plants back

 

[discus dreamer]

thanks, that all sounds good.
I have been looking at the aqua one open top tanks and fancy the 76cm one. This would be an upgrade for my juwel 60 tank although more likely I would just move that to my study and have the open top one in the hall to replace it.
At the moment I have a bad back, probably from lugging buckets of water about, so everything is on hold.
DD