Carol, mine would generally be considered partially to mostly closed, I believe. When I obtained my 90 and 55 gal tanks, the top glass came with each. (The 90gal was a garage sale purchase, and the 55gal a hand-me-down from a friend's father who decided that after 20-30 years he was tired of keeping cichlids.) With the 55gal, the top glass covers about 75-80% of the tank -- it's missing the rubber "hinge" section as well as the plastic backsplash section. With the 90gal, about 90% of the tank. Having the top glass does help with keeping the humidity higher and more consistent. The only way the "above fluoros" would be anything more than useless would be if the tubes sat across the top of the tank. Sorry about that. You are absolutely correct that you would need to provide supplemental lighting. I did have a buddy who did just that with one of his larger terrs. He got 2 -two bulb 4ft shoplights and sat them across the top of the tank. Worked well. My tanks both have simple hoods I designed and my dad helped me make years back when I went upstate to visit. Each hood is hinged so I can flip back half of the hood to access the tank and the bulbs. The hoods -- from front to back -- cover about 90% of each tank. For lights I use six 200W equivalent coiled fluorescent bulbs in my 90gal and four 200W equv + two 100W equiv in my 55 gal. I have pondered trying some of the newer tube LEDs (I know a grower who supplies plants to the pdf hobbyists. He has done a great deal of investigating to find a brand of LED he feels will actually work for growing plants... as opposed to the junky ones you will find at a BBS.) Unfortunately, the suckers are EXPENSIVE. That has held me back. I'm currently testing out 2 LED tube bulbs on my plant stand. I'll see how they work out. (Definitely a LOT less heat than even regular fluoros, but haven't had them in play long enough to see what the plants think of them.) If your tanks are open, you will have to play much closer attention to humidity issues ... or more to the point a lack there of. Even without a top, you should wind up with an overall higher humidity level within the tank than the rest of the room. And depending upon just what plants you wish to grow, the humidity levels you will need to maintain may or not be more challenging to maintain in an open system. The buddy of mine who had the shoplights lying across his tank had a stream running through the tank (I think it may have been a 125gal L tank but it has been too long so memory is fuzzy.) The stream kept the tank envir. quite humid even though the tank was open.

i always do well with aloes but this over winter and spring i had a lot of cacti and succulent casulties. my hoya has done well as have my spider plants-i just leave them alone pretty much-my purple heart, my pothos and phildendrons, dieffs-they've given me as many babies as my spiders! the snake plant is a goodie and my agave has done well, too. i've murdered a beautiful orchid-but my others are doing well-i tried a potted mini rose and it died a long slow death :*( the song of india kicked the bucket within a week and i had this awesome zebra plant that died in a month...i'm doing so-so with my tropical INDOOR hibiscuses...i think they may be mad at me for bringing them inside now that summer is over. i had a really gorgeous moses-in-the-cradle that looks like craaaaap that u'm trying to bring back. and THEN there was the rather unfortunate plant stand crash that made my poor african violet retarded and stunted...but i'm hoping it recovers :) currently i'm trying to save a violet, a mini rose bush, and 2 potted mums from my job. if anyone has any suggestions, let me know! these poor plants need all the help they can get!

Hardest: Maya, HG, and any of those other "gotta really have" ones. (Grin) Wretched Mess was a loser. Easiest? The ones I got 3 for 10 and bloomed and bloomed. Ha! Frosty Pink is easy, Pink Beauty is easy, Sun Goddess (again, I'm gonna throw a plug out there for her!), the Candida Double Whites are pretty easy, etc. Sun sport seems to be easy also. Let my Dr Seuss go to the frost. Was VERY disappointed in him. Told him this is your second year and you did NOTHING. You are gone. (grin)

Oceanna, I sure you noticed the glass globes in the pics. I use those for most of my watering needs. When I leave for vacation I actually take the small plastic water or tea bottles, drill a hole in the top and invert them for extra water. Every once in a while I put a drop of fertilizer in the globe. I had an orchid that was doing wonderfully until the hot weather finally hit (about July this year) and burned it's leaves. So it's a no go for my garden window location. However, they are all flowering, even the begonia, so they seem to love their location and the mix of water/nutrients. So you might try the globes. That's the only thing I use on the african violet. The lipstick plant is voracious in it's need for water, so I end up supplementing. I have the globes in two different lengths. So size the stem to the pot you plan to use. Also, I don't know if the short and longer versions are made by the same manufacturer.