Building a canopy, this is my last construction question, I promise.

[badbread]

So the last step in this tank build is a canopy. I've been playing around with Sketchup and came up with is. I am doing this totally blind, I don't even know where to begin but here is what I came up with:

2x4 frame

Plywood skin

Closed top:

Open top:

Open with lighting plan (all to scale as much as I could):

On the tank

In the area to be installed

In pictures it seems to work but it seems like I'm missing something.

My thought process was to make a box frame out of 2x4's to fit the rim of the tank. That confuses me a bit though, how do you get the frame to stay on the top of the tank without sliding/etc... I was going to skin/box it in with 1/4" plywood or something similar to keep it semi light.

Thoughts? Am I on track?

 

[saltwatersig]

Jay

I'm not one to give opinions on building things (mechanically declined) but my first thought is what are you gonna do to displace the heat build up in the canopy ? As for your sliding issue.....most that I have seen ...including the makeshift one I built, are larger than the tank so that they fit over your tank and allow canopy to sit lower ...maybe a couple of inches (covers up the rim trim at the least) and on the inside of canopy there are several braces (another piece of wood ) to support it around the edges of tank.

Sergio

 

[sfsuphysics]

Why 2x4s? You really don't need that level of strength in a canopy, if it were me (and I'm assuming the two-bys are left overs from your other project) I'd rip them on a table saw into 1x1s. But construction advice aside.

Things I've done in the past is make it so the sides have the plywood hanging over the edge of the tank, that allows you to slide the mechanism forward and back (I'm not big on flip tops, although given your space confines... you seem to be stuck with a flip top).

Here's an idea that might address the venting problem Sergio mentions as well... attach it to the walls on either side of the tank, you can have it elevated off the tank too, which probably would be better because that wood will get wet, it will get salty and over time it will rot unless you seal it up good. You could get SUPER creative too and have some sort of caster system too that allows you to lift the whole bugger up and lock into places so you can work on in the tank (that mini will probably make the central part of the tank off limits simply due to it's size), then lower it back down when you're done...

Ok that's enough mental damage I'm doing... one of these days someone will take my advice of my crazy plans

 

[ModernReefKeeper]

lol
this is almost identical to what u sketched out.
I used 1X3s on end for the edges of the tank, and the ply hangs over the edge for the non slide around fit.

I thought u might have seem my build thread?

Ur totally welcome to come and scope it out, im in Downtown SJ and available weekends, and weekdays after 7ish.

see how i did my hinges, and feel the "weight" of the lift top...
pm me for address

 

[sid700]

+1 on using smaller wood 1x would be good enough.
+1 on getting some kind of venting

I would add a strip of 1x2 along the corner of the flipup cover. Above the lights in your pic...

1/4" ply glued at the edge need some kind of support.

Other thoughts -
make sure you have enough room to stick your arm (not to mention shoulders, head) in the canopy for moving/picking up/cleaning stuff.

I like my canopy light, so I can remove it easily. Just figure out a way to secure it when in place.

Double coat it. I put that marine varnish and I still get mold growing.

Think how easily you can change your bulbs.

 

[JAR]

Like Mike says, Tag that beast to the wall or maybe even hang the thing with cable.
You could use aluminum box channel or angle bar for a light weight material.
It never rusts or rots.
Use rivets or screws. Skin with wood or just hang a cool looking curtain.

If it were me I would build a cabinet or shelve above the tank and hang the lighting from some hooks. Then hang a panel or a curtain to block the light.
Vent for heat.
FWIW

 

[badbread]

Work at 5am, trip to Lowe's and HD at 8am, just stopped working on it now.

Went totally different than what I sketched up. I was perusing the aisles for a while and came up with an idea that will hopefully work.

Sergio, thanks! With what I built the plan is to overhang the entire black border of the tank and maybe put the same trim I'm using on the stand around the canopy.

Mike/JAR, you'll like what I did (I hope), I was pondering some type of pulley system but the GF shot that down. I then pondered a cabinet built into the wall but I have no idea how to do that, so I went way outside my little box of thinking.

Sid, I picked up a bunch of 1x1 and some other wooden square type things, thanks!

Will, I must have subconsciously created my drawing after seeing your tank thread, I didn't put 2 and 2 together until I saw your post.

So here is what I did today:

Canopy in the closed position:

Side shot closed:

Canopy in open position:

Side shot open:

I used some heavy duty sliding drawer rails from HD and created a simple little box frame with some wooden posts sticking out to hold the rails. The only part of the canopy that is in contact with the tank is that bottom box frame and those wooden pegs, everything else is "floating" on the rails.

Some area's of concern and putting together pictures:


The rails are attached to the posts with only 2 screws as seen here, anything to worry about?

I pre-drilled everything, set the clutch on the drill pretty low, didn't glue yet until I know this is actually going to work.


So the blue is the bottom frame resting on the tank, red is the post holding the rails, and green is the floating frame.

Another angle of the bottom frame. I left about 1/4" on each side of the tank for the overlapping plywood.

How the bottom frame is screwed together:

How the top frame is attached:

Things to work on:
It's a little flimsy still
One "post" I left uncut, need to fix it
Unglued
A two hand job, I was banking on the fact that the thicker/heavier wood on the bottom would make it so I didn't have to anchor it to the black lip around the tank but that just isn't going to happen. I need to figure out a way to make it anchored.
RUST, really worried this thing will rust up in a week.

Thought's? Concerns? Criticism? Suggestions?

Thanks all!

 

[ModernReefKeeper]

very interesting!!

I am also concerned about rust.
and with the extra weight for the equipment will it slide up and down smoothly?

Its ok if its flimsy open, but when closed is it flimsy?
Just put a "skin" and hav3e it overlap where the black framing of the tank is, just skin the front and sides, it wont slip off then



Note: looks like u cut that with a hand saw?
I have some major respect for u then..lol

 

[badbread]

Thanks for the reply Wil,

I guess only time will tell on the rust issue...

It takes a bit of muscle to break the 4 sliders free of the bottom lock and in turn lifts up the whole canopy. Once it breaks that initial locking point it's super smooth until you need to lock it up top which then takes 3 hands to do.

It's a little flimsy when open, when it's closed it's rock solid. The plan is to skin it with the same 1/4" plywood I used for the stand, this was more of a proof of concept, if you will, to see if my crazy idea would actually work.

I borrowed my GF's dad's compound miter saw to cut everything. The square is just about perfect and only off by less than 1/16" of an inch. I used a combination of levels, a square, and lots of clamps to make sure it was as straight as possible.

The floating frame well... floats. It doesn't touch any other wood on the canopy including the posts and the bottom frame.

On a side note, I ripped apart 6 computers in my recycle pile at work and now have 6 case cooling fans and 6 smaller CPU cooling fans to use in the stand and the canopy!

Also, whenever I figure out which side is going to be the front I am going to remove that bottom support beam so I have full frontal access (gigidy!) to the tank.

Thanks!

 

[JAR]

Very creative.
I would take GF's dad over his miter saw if I were you.LOL

I think you plan will be fine as long as the top of your tank is strong enough.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Looks good.

It seems from what you wrote that it locks at the top, which is good, I'd put some "proof of concept" testing on that too, take it off the tank (incase it fails ) and put on way more weight than your lights will put on it, just to make sure that sucker stays, because if it doesn't lock tight and falls straight down that sudden stop could be bad, break bulbs, etc.

The "takes 3 hands to lock" is a bit of a concern... for obvious reasons

You said the frame is floating, is the bottom locking keeping it floating? Or is the bottom lock doing anything? If it's not might want to see about removing the tab or whatever is keeping it held fast if there really is no reason for it to lock at the bottom.

The corrosion factor I think will be the biggest problem with this. Its usually an unknown factor right up until the point you start seeing rust. I do see dissimilar metals in the various screws, so it might happen. To prevent that, you might want to put a little clear coat over them so they don't get in direct contact with salt water.

Otherwise, a bang up job... you could only get a slicker design if you had an pneumatic arm that triggers via remote control