Does glass cover reduce efficiency of my lighting?

Hi folks,

Another post in this forum reminded me that I wanted to post this.. namely, I want more light for my buck. However, I don't have the budget constraint, so I will be looking into a new lighting system altogether.

What I'm wondering, is how much light and I losing via the glass cover of my 125g tank? Within a day after cleaning it, the salt creep is starting to show, and within a week it basically looks awful.

I'm wondering if I suspend my light about 4" above the surface, while removing the covers (I encourage 'evaporative cooling' as it's a cold-water tank), if the resulting unimpeded light would be anything more than marginally better. Overall, I like the access, and appearance better anyways.

Thanks,

RAS

Sintei;19796 said:

Just remember, more light equals less wiggleroom (nutrients, co2, algea etc).

Click to expand...

Yup, I realize this (this is a macroalgae tank only - the only animals within it are 4 hermit crabs and about 5 green crabs, and maybe a couple of micro stars).

Cheers,

RAS