Canopy questions

[keisersosei]

Right now I am using a glass hood and I have a few questions about the canopy I am planning on building. How accessible is the bottom of the tank? I'm running 4 PC bulbs (2 daylight/2 actinic) and was wondering how to put them in the canopy. I'm assuming I need to keep the reflectors. Someday I might convert to metal halide and I would like to keep my options open, so how tall does the canopy need to be, 18"? Any other tips from experience would be appreciated. I can figure out the basic structure and implementation of the canopy but I'm sure there are some things that I will not think of on my own since I have no experience with this. Thanks a lot for all of your help.

 

[justinx]

I wrote a thread a few days ago about building a canopy. Take a look at that, it says "here are the plans for a DIY canopy" It is a basic design that can be easily modified. For MH, plan on at least 8-12" off the water. If you give more details about the tank, i can help a little more. ie, do you have a hang on or a sump, drilled or not, what size tank etc.
P.S. Verbal is the man

 

[keisersosei]

There were no plans, it just said to e-mail you. Would you please e-mail them to me? Here is my e-mail address: bishopthomas@cox-internet.com. My tank is a 55 gallon, non-drilled, hang-on filter. I'm thinking it should be 10-12 inches tall with access doors in the front. But would it be hard to get to the bottom of the tank with the canopy on? Is the back usually enclosed? I would think that heat would be trapped very easily if not.

 

[justinx]

i will email them to you as soon as i get a chance. However these plans were made for a 20H, but could be easily modified. Now about getting to the bottom of the tank, with this canopy, there are no doors on the front to ope, the entire top is hinged to open, so with this design, getting to the bottom will be no problem. I will send the plans later when i get home (at work right now)

 

[keisersosei]

Thanks a lot. That would be greatly appreciated. Do the plans include pictures?

 

[jakob4001]

you could also leave an opening for your light fixture to sit in, but establish some way for it to be connected to the frame of the canopy; that would make for easier maintenance & accessibility if you could simply remove your lighting fixture from the canopy

 

[keisersosei]

I'm thinking about something along those lines. I was planning on taking everything out of the fixture and reinstalling it in the canopy but I think I will just leave it in the fixture and mount it in the canopy. Maybe not screw it in place but have it snap into place somehow.