Built a new canopy for my 92 Gallon corner bowfront

Before I started my project, my tank had no canopy, the Metal halide light just hung above the tank. Its a 400 watt light, so I was worried about heat.



After a while, I started getting really annoyed at the bright light shining in my eyes while trying to watch TV in the living room. I also got annoyed when a $100 fish would jump out of the tank onto the floor and dry out. I also really liked the idea of the sunrise, sunset lighting concept many people with canopies do ... that I was unable to do.

So I searched all over online to try and find someone else who did a build on a corner tank ... its a lot harder than you'd think.

I found like 3 ... none of the 3 did I like 100% ... so I blended, stole, and mixed up the ideas to come up with what I wanted.

Started by cutting a top for the canopy, and a donut style bottom for the canopy, so the light could get through it:



I cut both the top and bottom together, so that I knew they would match up. I cut the curve with a jigsaw, and just used an electric sander to fine tune.



Then I used the jigsaw to cut the centre out of the bottom, so that it would rest on the rim of the tank.



A quick run to the living room to make sure it fit:







I had to trim a small piece off of each side because it was hitting my return lines:



I had to move things indoors for the assembly ... the sky turned black in about ten minutes ... and it was a race to get my tools indoors before the rain began.





The canopy is 26 1/2" tall, which is much taller than I would have liked, but my light is massive, and at 400 watts, I need to keep it at a decent height to prevent damage to my corals.

A quick test to make sure I wasn't wasting my time lol.



... so far, it still fits, which is great news.

The plan is to wrap it in red oak, which will be easier to bend, because it comes in 1/8" sheets. Also, when painted gloss black, the beautiful oak wood grain shines through.

the application of the veneer, bending, gluing, and nailing, requires a tremendous amount of patience, nails, glue and clamps.

I also intended to extend the oak, an inch and a half below the bottom donut of the canopy, this will help to keep it in place and prevent slipping as well as prevent excess light from escaping, should it not sit perfectly flush.

Heat was still going to be an issue, a 400 watt halide in an enclosed 30 cubic foot space was going to get hot. I picked up a variable voltage DC adapter from an electronics store. I wanted the variable voltage adapter incase the fans were loud, I could reduce the amount of power to the fans to slow them slightly and reduce the noise.

I wired two 12v computer fans in parallel to the adapter. This was the result:



I wanted two fans blowing cool air in, and two fans blowing warm air out, so I needed to wire up a second set



I accidentily cut the holes for the fans just a little bit too big, but since they were going where you could never see them ... I wasn't about to re-side the canopy to fix the mistake.





as you can see in these photo's, the entire front curved portion is a folding lid. I used a 40 inch piano hinge to accomplish this task. When building the initial stand, I built a curved door ... but due to the extreme frustration of that task ... I wasn't about to try it again lol.

I forgot to take pictures of cuttin across the top to seperate the lid from the base. I just used a circular saw to cut through the whole thing ... then hinged it and sided it.

Back to the living room to make sure it fit:



First coat of paint:



As you can see in the background, this is unfortunately not the only project I'm undertaking at the moment.

Side Shot - I left the back open for powerhead cords, light cords, and fan cords ... also will help with cooling I think.





This is the inside, with the light and fans mounted and operating:







And the moment I hope you've been waiting for ... the suspense is here ...

The finished product, well worth the time and effort!

 

The project ended up taking 2 days to complete. It could have been done in 1, but I used a paint that takes 24 hours to cure.

Total cost of this project was $170, including lumber, hardware, paint, fans, and dc adapters

 

That looks like that tank was born in that corner and it will die in that corner. Nice job man!

 

the almost symmetry of the cap with the stand makes it look really nice, I think the need to cover the light worked out very well in your favor.

 

looking great!
what did you do to protect the wood that sits on the edge of the tank?

I think I would have put the 2 exhaust fans in the top drawing the hot air out to the ceiling - since heat rises the fans wont work as hard to be effective.

 

wow thats looks realy nice

 

Its just painted with two coats of an acrylic enamel ... its basically a plastic coating.

And I don't know how I didn't think of that with the fans ... it makes so much more sense lol. Regardless, the tank temp is sitting at 77 with the fans running ... cooler than before I put the canopy on ... so its working out quite nicely for temp control!

 

Great job

 

Very nice man looks great! Deff a big improvement.

 

Nice hood!!! The tank looks 10 times better too!!! Its a piece of furniture now!!! Good Job!