open top vs. canopy

Annie, yours looks great. I have mine hanging about 8 inches off the water in my canopy. My canopy comes out to about 16 inches tall. Instead of having holes on top of my canopy (great idea btw) I have fans on each end pulling air from the canopy. The fans were there from when I had my MH (3 weeks ago I guess) and it's working just fine. You, sir, can have your cake and eat it too.

 

Devon how big is your tank I run LED and made my canopy myself.

 

Personally, I like the open top look if you're gonna do it right, heres a link to my buddies tank with a VERY Clean DIY led system;
http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/bens-45g-cube-144210-2.html
then do this:
http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/clear-mesh-jump-stopper-121802.html

but I have a DIY on half my tank and reefbreeders on the other half with about 8" clearance and it is fine.

 

My set up is 3 months old all bought new so kinda hard not try to use it. I think im going to cut holes in the canopy and mount the two fixtures outside on the top. If that doesnt work I will go to a local cabinet maker and have a custom canopy made. I dont have the tools to make make as nice and to match the stand. My tank is 100gRR 48x20x24 made by dsa for all thats asking. Thanks everyone for your help. Im still not sure which LED setup to buy yet. Most likely Ecotech or AI Vega.

 

I designed a custom light rig into a DIY canopy. I HATE light spill with a passion. It works great. Keeps all the light contained.

 

AI Vega's coming soon! I hope two will be enough.

 

open top does look very sexy. however, cant you get a glass or acrylic lid to keep the fish from jumping?

 

Most people don't use glass tops cause they hold heat in the tank & it prevents the water from being able to have a gas exchange. I just personally don't like the looks of glass tops. That's why others are talking about using a mesh over the tank.

 

I went sort of best of both worlds and hung my canopy LOL



Compared to just hanging fixtures there is less light spill, and with the canopy its not much worse then if it was sitting on top of the tank.

 

That's thinking outside the box Chris. Looks good!