Canopy or not????? need build idea's
 

Well, the light spillover from my MH on the 150g is driving me nuts. Have to have the lights 6" off water to keep me form going blind, yet that heats water WAY to much. I am thinking of building a canopy, But have allways had open top tanks for my SW. I'm wondering how feeding, and cleaning ease is with a canopy on there? I hand feed my puffer and others.

Anyone got some building plans, or pics of their canopy's? I am GREAT with building from Steel/Alum, but not so good with wood. Need all the help I can get to make it look good LOL

Tank is a 150g, 24"w, 60"long

This link might give you some ideas... LINK

bumping this up, any more canopy plans or idea's?

canopies
 

canopy
 

i basicly built mine the same way-a little more fancier out of mahogany-but i made it with one double hinged door and two pull out shelves for the lights-fairly easy-if you can build a box you can build a canopy

Do you recall mine from when you were here? I just have a 'crown' on top of my tank. I can pull it off the tank in a second, it doesnt trap heat, it hides all the crap going in and out of the tank and it was very inexpensive and simple to build.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...Picture066.jpg

I figure a few sheets of aluminum and some velcro should do the trick.

this is my open top canopy :-D

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1249486775

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1249486836

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1249486853

It was pretty simple to build. Great access on either side with swinging doors. My light actually sits on top of the canopy about 4 inches so there is a gap. I like it this way so that there is plenty of ventilation and I don't cook the tank. You can easily modify this so that your light is housed inside of it, or sit your light right on top of it with no gaps.

How much light spill do you have with these open top styles? I want to enclose my MH's and get all the light possible into the tank. But fear the heat issues when I do. It's pretty stable now with no top, and fan blowing across.

No light spill for me. My pendants hang slightly lower than the top of the crown so all of the light is contained within the tank.

Please feel free to learn from the errors of a Tank Lid first build ...

I did have the tank up and running for about 3 months before I put the lid on & I figure I'm only losing about 1/2 the water due to evaporation compared to Open top.

This is the lid on my 45gal Display. Inside I've got a Coralife with 2 x 96w CF - there is a bit of a heat issue that I'm working on. The light has fans which I've vented, but there is still a heat issue - probably nothing like MH, though.

If you build a tank cover, take my advice and unless you have a serious space issue don't attach the lights to the hinged lid. Great access, lots of room to get into the tank, but its really hard to see with all that light in your eyes at feeding time :surprise:
With the Lid closed:
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1.../tanklid02.jpg
With the Lid open:
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1.../tanklid05.jpg

I have been happy with this canopy. Due to some extreme heat from the halides we had to rout out the slots in the top significantly. We also added some vertical pieces of wood as light blockers on the end slots. The entire side flips up and I have no problem reaching my entire arm in to reach the bottom of the tank. The only complaint is that I can not use a pro scraper with a long handle since it hits the top of the canopy. So anything that the magnet can not take care of means a wet arm.

Patrick