DIY Cheap Canopy Extension and lighting configuration - Pic intensive

Gimplar · 10/31/2006, 04:02 PM

Ok everyone, I finally finished my canopy. but before I talk about the processes and steps....

THANK YOU NAH20FOOL!!! Without mike's help, this canopy wouldn't of turned out nearly as nice as it did. I want to say thank you for the time that you sacrificed to help me with this canopy, and i would like to dedicate this paragraph for the courtesy and kindness that you and your family has shown me. A million thanks can not show how appreciative i am of your help.

Also i would like to thank Pmike for the original canopy and the delivery services :P Thanks mike!

Ok, I have a 6 ft, 125 Gallon tank and the problems i cant facing was over heating due ot my Metal halides and VHO configurations being too close to the water level. Prior to this reconstruction, my temp was running at 86 degrees + if the halides were left on for more then 5 hours. So what i wanted to do was get a taller canopy with an open back inorder to circulate and have enough height to drastically reduce the temperature to a normal degree. What i ended up doing was getting a old used canopy and adding on wood inorder to make it taller.

First, i got a new canopy from Pmike which needed heavy modifications in order to do what i wanted it to do. Here are a few pics (they're pmike's pics) of the canopy prior to construction

.

Ok, well this canopy had a few characteristics that made it difficult to configure into the size i wanted. The first thing was that the edges had routing and borders that made it very difficult to match because the routing was quite customized and the size and shape was a pain to find a perfect match.

With NaH20fool's help, we decided to do the following steps to make the canopy

1. Pry off the borders and re-route new borders and trim to make it more eye appealing.

2. Remove the lip on the inside of the canopy (the piece that physically sits on the tank) and save them for later placement.

3. Get some wood that is the same thickness and width (for the desired length). If you're cutting it, make sure you measure twice and cut once

. add it on to the canopy. This is a difficult and crucial task because the added piece of wood has to line up flawlessly. This was acomplished by adding in wood bisquits between the canopy and the new wood. This assures the wood stayed in place and added strength. clamp the new wood and the canopy together after adding the bisquits, glueing them with wood glue, and glueing the actually wood panels together. Do this process for the front and side panels.

3. After the new wood and canopy were clamped and dried and the routered pieces (or whatever attachments you're adding) are finished, Begin sanding the added front and side panels, (we used a circular sander) and smooth the newly added and the canopy so both pieces are flush.

4. After everything is smooth, Add in support braces to ensure that the new pieces are heavily supported and will not snap off with force. Here are some pics to demonstrate. All pieces that are not the red burgandy colors was added by NaH20fool and I.

Gimplar · 10/31/2006, 04:05 PM

And as you can see, we moved the inside lip (the piece that sits on the tank and it also determines how much of the tank is covered by the canopy) and moved it down lower.

5. After sanding everything and reenforcing all the newly added pieces of wood as well as the stability of the canopy as a whole. Add on the desired routing attachements and screw them in through the back of the canopy to avoid any unsightly screws ect ect. Here are some more pics of the new routed borders.

After adding on the routing ect ect. Fill in all the knots in the wood (if any) as well as any dings or nicks. We used wood putty and sanded it down flush. The top of the used canopy had holes cut out for fans, which were off centered and large chunks of wood had been ripped out. We should of used Bondo, but the wood putty worked great. We also recut the fan holes and made them straighter and more alligned.

After sanding and added all the pieces of wood to make the canopy to your desired height. Double, tripple, quadrouple check EVERYTHING and make sure that everything is what you want it to be.

Heres a few pics of the finished project.

Gimplar · 10/31/2006, 04:06 PM

After being finished with all the heavier construction work, Prime everything! make sure you do this, otherwise it'll be visible that you extended the canopy and it wont really look nearly as nice.

Heres a efw more pics with the canopy primed

After painting the outside black. I used an oilbased paint at first, but it took too long to dry and i just ended up going over it with an outdoor latex paint becuase the oil's absorb differently when there are different pieces of wood.

After painting it, configure the lighting to your needs, i personally wanted to run 4 110 watt vho's and 3 175 Metal halides. Make sure if you put vho's or T5's, that you have them under the MH's, otherwise you wont really get an affect out of them. I just added pieces of wood which elevated the VHO's higher then the MH's here are the pics.

this pic is the mounting for the MH's.

And heres the added on VHO wood mount withs VHO's ecte ct ect

After this, i took off all the purple plastic lining for the reflectors and made sure everything turned on properly. I'll get some more pics of the canopy while its on my tank, but i wont be able to until later tonight.

Thanks and if anyone has any questions just PM or post here

-Nelson

W Ellis · 10/31/2006, 04:13 PM

Looking good. Im glad you got it all worked out and fixed up. Cant wait to see it completely finished.

mflamb · 10/31/2006, 07:59 PM

Great solution to the heat problem.

Gimplar · 10/31/2006, 11:02 PM

Thanks... tomorrow will be a full test on how much the heat rises with the MH's on.

NACLH2OFOOL · 11/01/2006, 09:05 AM

Nelson, thanks for the kind words. It was a pleasure working with you and I hope the hood does all you want it too.

Mike

NACLH2OFOOL · 11/01/2006, 10:22 AM

By the way, I forgot to tell you that I finally ordered the hood closures for my tank and I will have a couple of extras for you when they arrive. I'll pm you when they are in.

Mike

Gimplar · 11/01/2006, 12:15 PM

Oh wow! thanks mike! lol i just noticed i messed up your name in the thread. I think i just proved that i dont know chemistry LoL!

10/31/2006, 04:02 PM	#1
Gimplar Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Tampa Posts: 2,313	DIY Cheap Canopy Extension and lighting configuration - Pic intensive Ok everyone, I finally finished my canopy. but before I talk about the processes and steps.... THANK YOU NAH20FOOL!!! Without mike's help, this canopy wouldn't of turned out nearly as nice as it did. I want to say thank you for the time that you sacrificed to help me with this canopy, and i would like to dedicate this paragraph for the courtesy and kindness that you and your family has shown me. A million thanks can not show how appreciative i am of your help. Also i would like to thank Pmike for the original canopy and the delivery services :P Thanks mike! Ok, I have a 6 ft, 125 Gallon tank and the problems i cant facing was over heating due ot my Metal halides and VHO configurations being too close to the water level. Prior to this reconstruction, my temp was running at 86 degrees + if the halides were left on for more then 5 hours. So what i wanted to do was get a taller canopy with an open back inorder to circulate and have enough height to drastically reduce the temperature to a normal degree. What i ended up doing was getting a old used canopy and adding on wood inorder to make it taller. First, i got a new canopy from Pmike which needed heavy modifications in order to do what i wanted it to do. Here are a few pics (they're pmike's pics) of the canopy prior to construction . Ok, well this canopy had a few characteristics that made it difficult to configure into the size i wanted. The first thing was that the edges had routing and borders that made it very difficult to match because the routing was quite customized and the size and shape was a pain to find a perfect match. With NaH20fool's help, we decided to do the following steps to make the canopy 1. Pry off the borders and re-route new borders and trim to make it more eye appealing. 2. Remove the lip on the inside of the canopy (the piece that physically sits on the tank) and save them for later placement. 3. Get some wood that is the same thickness and width (for the desired length). If you're cutting it, make sure you measure twice and cut once . add it on to the canopy. This is a difficult and crucial task because the added piece of wood has to line up flawlessly. This was acomplished by adding in wood bisquits between the canopy and the new wood. This assures the wood stayed in place and added strength. clamp the new wood and the canopy together after adding the bisquits, glueing them with wood glue, and glueing the actually wood panels together. Do this process for the front and side panels. 3. After the new wood and canopy were clamped and dried and the routered pieces (or whatever attachments you're adding) are finished, Begin sanding the added front and side panels, (we used a circular sander) and smooth the newly added and the canopy so both pieces are flush. 4. After everything is smooth, Add in support braces to ensure that the new pieces are heavily supported and will not snap off with force. Here are some pics to demonstrate. All pieces that are not the red burgandy colors was added by NaH20fool and I. __________________ T.B.R.C. Vice President The Gimp Current Tank Info: 60 gal cube. Specializing in bryopsis and cyano propagation

10/31/2006, 04:05 PM	#2
Gimplar Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Tampa Posts: 2,313	And as you can see, we moved the inside lip (the piece that sits on the tank and it also determines how much of the tank is covered by the canopy) and moved it down lower. 5. After sanding everything and reenforcing all the newly added pieces of wood as well as the stability of the canopy as a whole. Add on the desired routing attachements and screw them in through the back of the canopy to avoid any unsightly screws ect ect. Here are some more pics of the new routed borders. After adding on the routing ect ect. Fill in all the knots in the wood (if any) as well as any dings or nicks. We used wood putty and sanded it down flush. The top of the used canopy had holes cut out for fans, which were off centered and large chunks of wood had been ripped out. We should of used Bondo, but the wood putty worked great. We also recut the fan holes and made them straighter and more alligned. After sanding and added all the pieces of wood to make the canopy to your desired height. Double, tripple, quadrouple check EVERYTHING and make sure that everything is what you want it to be. Heres a few pics of the finished project. __________________ T.B.R.C. Vice President The Gimp Current Tank Info: 60 gal cube. Specializing in bryopsis and cyano propagation

10/31/2006, 04:06 PM	#3
Gimplar Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Tampa Posts: 2,313	After being finished with all the heavier construction work, Prime everything! make sure you do this, otherwise it'll be visible that you extended the canopy and it wont really look nearly as nice. Heres a efw more pics with the canopy primed After painting the outside black. I used an oilbased paint at first, but it took too long to dry and i just ended up going over it with an outdoor latex paint becuase the oil's absorb differently when there are different pieces of wood. After painting it, configure the lighting to your needs, i personally wanted to run 4 110 watt vho's and 3 175 Metal halides. Make sure if you put vho's or T5's, that you have them under the MH's, otherwise you wont really get an affect out of them. I just added pieces of wood which elevated the VHO's higher then the MH's here are the pics. this pic is the mounting for the MH's. And heres the added on VHO wood mount withs VHO's ecte ct ect After this, i took off all the purple plastic lining for the reflectors and made sure everything turned on properly. I'll get some more pics of the canopy while its on my tank, but i wont be able to until later tonight. Thanks and if anyone has any questions just PM or post here -Nelson __________________ T.B.R.C. Vice President The Gimp Current Tank Info: 60 gal cube. Specializing in bryopsis and cyano propagation

10/31/2006, 04:13 PM	#4
W Ellis Premium Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: St. Petersburg, FL Posts: 1,585	Looking good. Im glad you got it all worked out and fixed up. Cant wait to see it completely finished. __________________ Will

10/31/2006, 07:59 PM	#5
mflamb Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Pasadena, Texas Posts: 8,422	Great solution to the heat problem. __________________ Click on my red house to see my 390 and 300 build thread. Those are my last 2 tanks in Tampa. Now in Pasadena waiting to buy a house to set up my next tank....anemones and clowns...probably a 3x3 150 gallon.

10/31/2006, 11:02 PM	#6
Gimplar Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Tampa Posts: 2,313	Thanks... tomorrow will be a full test on how much the heat rises with the MH's on. __________________ T.B.R.C. Vice President The Gimp Current Tank Info: 60 gal cube. Specializing in bryopsis and cyano propagation

11/01/2006, 09:05 AM	#7
NACLH2OFOOL Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Tampa, Florida Posts: 202	Nelson, thanks for the kind words. It was a pleasure working with you and I hope the hood does all you want it too. Mike __________________ The cure for anything is saltwater - sweat, tears or the sea. Isak Dinesen Current Tank Info: 150g in-wall reef in progress. Trigger Ruby Sump, Vertex Omega skimmer and calcium reactor, 2 - 36" ATI T5 Lights, Reeflo Dart, Neptune Apex Gold, DOS, DDR, WAV, Moon Lights. Turbo Aquatics L2 ATS. 29g QT.

11/01/2006, 10:22 AM	#8
NACLH2OFOOL Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Tampa, Florida Posts: 202	By the way, I forgot to tell you that I finally ordered the hood closures for my tank and I will have a couple of extras for you when they arrive. I'll pm you when they are in. Mike __________________ The cure for anything is saltwater - sweat, tears or the sea. Isak Dinesen Current Tank Info: 150g in-wall reef in progress. Trigger Ruby Sump, Vertex Omega skimmer and calcium reactor, 2 - 36" ATI T5 Lights, Reeflo Dart, Neptune Apex Gold, DOS, DDR, WAV, Moon Lights. Turbo Aquatics L2 ATS. 29g QT.

11/01/2006, 12:15 PM	#9
Gimplar Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Tampa Posts: 2,313	Oh wow! thanks mike! lol i just noticed i messed up your name in the thread. I think i just proved that i dont know chemistry LoL! __________________ T.B.R.C. Vice President The Gimp Current Tank Info: 60 gal cube. Specializing in bryopsis and cyano propagation