[TexasTanker]

I just completed and added my home made plexi canopy. I dumped the store bought glass cause, it just won't end well in my mad house. Within 20 minutes I had a HUGE amount of condensation. This is a given, considering I keep my house 72 and my tank 78. I also noticed the side with a filter cut out doesn't have as much. That said, should I ventilate the canopy? I can do it in such a way as to keep splashing near anything electrical to a minimum. Will this affect my lighting? Hopefully I did this right and you can see what I'm talking about.

As a side note... do I need more air in my 55 gallon? It's gonna be planted in the back, with a school of fish (live bearer) and a hand full of emerald cats. I've been looking around and it looks like a lot of people here have the whole air bubble thing going on.

 

[iamntbatman]

I would ventilate it. If there's that much condensation, I'm guessing the water level is up to that center brace so the air is effectively trapped under the canopy on the right side? If so, that means there's zero oxygen exchange happening on that side of the tank, effectively chopping your surface area in half, which isn't so great for your fish.

That said, too much surface agitation will promote a lot of oxygen exchange, forcing out CO2 in favor of oxygen, which isn't good if you aim to have a planted tank. For that reason, you usually don't want to run any sort of air stones or air pump powered decor in a planted tank during the day time (at night it's fine, though).

 

[TexasTanker]

That said, too much surface agitation will promote a lot of oxygen exchange, forcing out CO2 in favor of oxygen, which isn't good if you aim to have a planted tank. For that reason, you usually don't want to run any sort of air stones or air pump powered decor in a planted tank during the day time (at night it's fine, though).

The only surface agitation is from the filter output. The water is about two inches below the cross beam. Can you explain the logistics behind running the aerator at night versus the day? I've never heard that.... in my whole three months :-D of fish keeping.

 

[iamntbatman]

Plants use CO2 and give off O2 during the day (i.e. when the lights are on and they're photosynthesizing) but at night they do the reverse, which can drop dissolved O2 levels considerably. Having an air pump come on only when the lights are out promotes oxygen exchange at night when both the fish and plants need it.