The canopy was not started until January of 2006 after the purchase of a 2 x 250W MH retrofit kit and took a couple of weeks to complete and place into operation. At the time of this writing I am in the process of getting ready purchase and install SilenX fans to help keep the tank cool.
Stand
In designing the stand, the main requirement was to be able to get a sump refugium under the stand easily. This meant in my book 'not having a center brace'. After searching the net for a few days I finally ended up basing my stand on a design from GeoffreyB on the DFWMAS.org DIY Forum. Information on his design can be found here (INSERT LINK TO ARTICLE HERE) and should be reviewed as I did not take any pictures at all of the actual frame building process.Since there is no center brace, the design of the doors had to be thought out differently as well. The doors were to be constructed from 1/2 plywood pieces that was also skinned the frame of the stand. The doors were also arranged with hidden hinges and trim to hide the seams. The doors open to the outside of the stand so the entire opening of the stand is made available.
Canopy
The two primary concerns in designing the stand were adjustable heights for the MH lamps and easy access to the tank from all sides. I decided on a frame constructed of 1x2 pine strips with a center support along the middle of the canopy. The 'doors of the canopy are trimmed pieces of plywood on the sides and front of the tank hinged from the top of plywood.The lamps and reflectors are supported by another 1x2 pine wood frame. The frames are supported by small 1x2 pieces attached at 2" vertical intervals to allow lowering of the frame/lamps as the bulbs age. Unfortunately I didn't think very well about mounting PC Actinics and had to depend on switching over to using parallel reflectors that have mounting strips attached to the reflector to install PC bulbs.
DWFMAS.org DIY Forum: 75g Canopy Build Log (was 75 gal stand)
...page... This is the stand with all the trim on it. The stand frame dimensions are 49"l X 19"d X30"h. The plywood skin is 1/2" birch. The trim & molding is pine. If I was to do things differently, I probably would make the pieces on each side of the front long instead of long pieces on the top & bottom. For the doors I plan on using two pieces of the birch plywood trimmed with maybe a 1/2" x 1 1/2" wood. One of the doors will have the false center attached to it. To hide the 4 lines of the plywood pieces Bekah wants me to put the thin rope molding on the lines.
This is the view from the back. Since GeoffreyB allready has posted pics of the stand construction I opted not to. As you can see the stand is basically the same design as his. I did do a couple of things differently (slightly). Instead of 2x4's all around, I used 2x6s for the top frame as not to need a center brace on the front or back (I reserve the right to add a 2x6 as a center brace on the back Smile ). I used simpson corner braces on the top 2x6s as well as the normal ones used on the bottom 2x4s to strengthen the top joints. Due to a miscalculation & budget constraints I only used 2 1/4" x 3" lag screws (top & bottom) on each full length 2x4s in the corner (instead of 4 per)
This is the stand completed and after the move was done. With the doors I was trying to get a 'no hardware/hing' look. I designed the doors to cover as many seems as possible and to limit any light leakage from a future sump. The trim covers all the seams around the doors and the middle peice of trim overlaps the center seam.
A closer look of the overlay.
A picture of the inside hinges. I took me a few hours of searching to find these hinges. I finally found them at Lowes. I actually ran into a problem mounting the doors. I ended up not having a place to mount the hinges to! What I did was cut some 2 x 4's of length from the 2 x 6's of the side of the frame to the door opening. I mounted them by drilling in holes and pilot holes in the 2 x 4's to attach them to the side 2 x 6's. I also did the same to attach the 2 x 4's to the front. I then had something to attach the hinges to.
The entire tank and stand:
...page... (edit from post)
...Lighting Configuration....
(talk about lighting configuation and new configuration to move to.)
(to be continued)