to cover, or not to cover..

[dzones]

I am gathering opinions on the following..

I have 3 pendant style 250w MH lights that I can easily suspend over my new 150. It would make for a pretty easy job on my part as everything is already in place...OR should I use the canopy that matches the tank setup that I already have. I could rig the lights inside the canopy and make that work.
Thing is this..
Years ago i had a canopy over the tank and while it did nicely hide stuff it did become a real pain when I needed to work on anything inside the tank that required a little extra "open room". Meant I had to remove the whole canopy which is a royal pain in the arse when ya got wiring from lights, fans etc. besides, surely they would hold a lot more heat in the tank enclosure requiring more cooling fans.
interested in hearing your thoughts, pros/cons and maybe tell me what style you went with on your setup.. canopy or no?

[techdiver]

I personally like the look of a nice canopy, but I can see how the pendants could make maintenance and cooling easier. You could have the pendants setup so they raise up out of the way. You would have to worry about any potential fish that are jumpers though.

[mistya55]

My 20l is open top. I kinda like it, although I would feel terrible if one of the fish decided to go awol on me. My light looks better since I took the top of mine off.