Canopy for All Glass Bowed Face?

[tang thang]

I have a bow face 72 gallon all glass aquarium. I am having great difficulty in finding an affordable canopy. I have found some in the $350/400 price range, but will have to pay for SH. Does anyone have any advice on building one or know where I canfind one for cheaper. I am using 4 55W PC's. Thanks

 

[beth]

Hello there. I see you are new to this BB. Welcome!
What a coincidence. I, too,have a 72 bow and had the very same problem you had with finding a canopy to fit. Fortunately, I did find an online source, which cost me $215 which included some custom work I wanted done as well as the shipping cost.
Since you are new, you probably don't know that we are not allowed to discuss other online stores or merchants on this site, so I can't really give you my source here on the BB. It was easy enough to find, however, by doing a web serach.

 

[aquaman2]

i saw this web site were this guy built his own buy geting two garbage cans and puting one under each end of the wood and in the middle he put bricks on to to bend the wood.

 

[fixitdude2001]

Welcome to the board. we have the same tank also. I built our canopy myself ,took me one afternoon. Mine cost quite a bit due to the 4 96watt pc in the back and the 400watt MH in the bow.OK I bought the pc in a hole hood compleate but, it is square, so this part sits on the square part of the tank{in the back} I didnt like not haveing the light in the front so I ordered a MH kit, came with a ballist bulb and wireing kit. Whent to the lumber yard and bought one sheet of luan 4x8 you dont need that much but I didnt have any laying around, Very thin wood used for flooring. Had pc on the top of tank were I wanted them measured the distance from them to the widest part of the bow{THE front}and bought a board that width actually is was wider and 5/8 thick. Since I added the Mh in the bow I had to keep the light up off the glass top But If you dont want any light up there you could make it the same hieght as the pc. So to make it all the same hieght I built a small box for my pc to sit on .Ok for the actual building I took the 5/8 bord and layed it on top of the tank on the bow, traced it out and cut it to size. Took the other end of the board and layed the cutout piece on it and cut another one. Since I put a light in the front the bottom had to be cut out . So I took a compass and whent from the curved part of the wood and measured in 2 inches and scribbed a mark and cut it out.Now you have a top and a bottom. Now cut out luan to the hieght you want it, For the lenght you want to make it longer than the lenght of your cut boards, due to when you bend the luan you will need more so cut it at least an inch longer than the top and bottom. My canopy is a foot high. Now to put it together, lay the top down and figure how high you want it. you will need to cut some small strips of wood for support, I made the frame with top and bottom and small boards for support. When frame is built lay thin board on the bow center . I started whith wood glue and small finishing nails. by nailing them close together the wood will bend over the bow. I probly used if not more than a hundred finishing nails. Since my stand is black I painted the raw wood black and you cant see the nails. After you get it all secured you can trim off any extra from the front wood. I then got some hindges{stainless} took my pcs apart and hindged the piece I made to the top of the pc. They come apart very easy. This way you can lift the front to feed and work in the tank . Sorry for the long post but I hope this helps you if you do it youreself, I enjoyed it. I did add to fans in my bow to help remove some of the heat created from the MH. I know with the wood , nails and glue and paint I spent about 40 dollars, the big money came from the pc,Mh,lighting. I hope this helps....fixit I also have pics of it on web page {this is our old site} http://www.angelfire.com/my/reeftank