I am looking to put a wooden canopy on top of my 180 gallon tank. The tank is the standard 180 gallon size 72x24x24. I would also like to use my existing lighting fixture. The lighting fixture is 72" wide. I was told that may be a problem since the canopy sits on the outer frame of the tank. Any suggestions? I am not to confident in my woodworking ability and wouldn’t mind paying someone to make something that would work for my current setup. Please help!
Do you have a canopy now? I had my father inlaw make me mine.I will take some pics tomorrow and post them up. I also have a hood that we might be able to use. But that might depend on your lighting setup.
I have 3 - 250 watt HQI Metal Halides and 4 T5 HO 80 Watt Fluorescence bulbs. Everything is nicely installed in the light fixture. What hood do you have? Here is a picture of my tank from a few months ago. It should give you an idea of my lighting fixture. I appreciate the feedback i would also need to stain it to match my current stand. Lmk what you think.
Matt, is your light fixture right at 72"? looks to be a little longer, maybe it the angle of the pic. Why do you want to put canopy on it? IMO it would get hot in the hood, but I’m sure you’ll put a fan in it as well to get the air circulate.
Why is your light on the left is bluer than the 2 in the center and right? or is it just the camera?
A, The fixture is right at 72" so it must be the camera/angle. I want a canopy to prevent the light from shooting out into the room. The halides are real bright and can shine right in your face if you are sitting on the couch on the floor etc. So i’m trying to figure something out to prevent the light from going everywhere. I want to try and use the existing lighting fixture it has two fans built in and a i would probably get two more clip on type fans to mount on the back of the canopy for extra circulation. I have a 15k bulb on the left and two 10k bulbs on the right of the tank. I would like to go bluer but i have these bulbs and hate to waste them since they are pretty expensive. Just fishing for ideas. le-frog lOl
maybe a 1x12 around the edge 12" height and attach a 1x2 around the inside so it rests on the rim of the tank, cut out an area for access put some hinges or something on it it would look good. then cut in a couple fans should be good.
Yes dunk that is something like I did when I built my setup.
Here is a pic of mine, maybe you can use it for a starting point, hope it helps.
That’s nice what kind of wood did you use? How much would it cost for materials? Would you be interested in seeing my setup and possibly making one for me? LMK no pressure just asking. My tank is a more natural color if you can see it from the picture.
I used very inexpensive pine and then gave it 4 coats of stain. It wouldn’t cost much money and you could maybe hang your fixture with cables from the top of the canopy. I did this almost 8 years ago and living in Salisbury MD would make it difficult .
Yea i think pine would be the best. Did you put any protective clear coating on the canopy? Would it be good to polyurethane the whole fixture to prevent from saltwater damage? I like the design very nice and gets the job done. Did you use finishing nails or screws? I could hang the fixture from the top of the canopy but i’m wondering it it would be too heavy to mount to the top? LMK your thoughts. Thanks for all the feedback. I understand Salisbury MD is a little bit of a hike.
I used a stain with poly in it already and just lightly sanded in between coats. And I painted the inside with a white marine based paint. Used finishing nails and then sank them in a little and used wood putty to fill in the holes.
Hanging the fixture - I just came across the same problem when I bought my LED setup, the person who built the LED installed them in a closed fixture and it is very heavy. What I did was to take the top off of the canopy and hung the new fixture from the ceiling with cables. And then just replaced the top on the canopy, but I cut it down so it just covers the middle of the canopy and the top sides are open for the cables. I could take some pics if you like.
If you don’t mind a pic or two would be nice. Thanks!
Here are the pics of how i installed my fixture.
left side
right side
Do you want to gut your fixture and install the components in a canopy, or just have something slip over the whole setup?
Preferably something to slip over my whole setup if it will fit. LMK if you have any suggestions.
What finish…stained, or painted… how many access doors on the front? are you matching a stand? f so throw up a pic of it…
Here is a pic of my tank. I would like the have the canopy cover the tank as it is with the light on top if at all possible. I would like to match the finish as close as possible. Probably two access doors in the front with vented sides for the fans in the light fixture. LMK your thoughts or if you can help. Thanks John!
Will do, i’ll think on that, shouldn’t be too bad though, and matching the pine stand would be easy. I had somebody else ask me to help make one also, but it shouldn’t be a problem i dont have too much else going on.
How much would it cost to make do you think? I’m thinking we may be able to put supports on all four corners of the canopy so that the legs of the light can still sit where they currently are. The only other thing I am worried about is the exhaust of my fan is very hot. I was thinking about installing wooden floor vents on both sides to allow for the fan to circulate. However, I am afraid that it may be too hot to blow through wooden vent as it is probably 150 degrees or something like that. I don’t want the thing to catch on fire. I would also probably vent the top somehow and leave the back open for more ventilation. I also would probably install two clip on fans in the back for more air flow. Let me know what you think. I like the design of the canopy posted by houndsbayman earlier up in the thread. The doors in the front are nice and by the design using standard pine would probably be pretty inexpensive. LMK what you think.
Pine is pretty inexpensive, stain/poly, paint, putty, screws, nails, hinges… i have some/ most of that, so i doubt you would need more then $50 in materials… I could be a bit off, but thats my best guess without wandering in depot for an hour with list in hand :
: the hinge aisle alone is good for a 20 minute head scratching stare >LOCO<