DIY Hanging Canopy anyone?

[MrSandman]

I'm about to start building for my next tank a Leemar 36"x24"x20" braceless/frameless Starphire tank and i'm going open top on this one.

I've looked around for hanging canopies, and it looks like not too many people have ever built their own. Most people just buy the pre-fab lighting pendants which have everything in it already.

I'm looking to build my own from scratch which will include a 2 x RO III 250W DE pendants, and 2 x 36" VHO actinic lamps.

Anybody here build their own hanging canopy and want to share their design?

 

[dogstar74]

I built my own hanging pendant out of a plastic windowbox. It still looks tight! But unfortunately, it would melt with MH. It was only built for VHO tubes. I have thought about what would make a good MH DIY Hanging pendant, and I was wondering if
Stove pipe would make an interesting pendant? You could paint the exterior black and the metal wouldn't melt under the MH's. You could also put fans in the ends etc to make it work better. Just a thought.

I did string mine to the ceiling with Picture wire. It's very strong and very small in diameter.

Good luck.

 

[Donw]

Here is mine although I wish I would have chose a better reflector. I'm going to do another with luminarc's later.

 

[Myrddraal]

I hung mine, I used a $25 bicycle hoist from Lowes, and mounted the pulleys to the canopy. I'll take pics tomorrow if you want, lights are already out for the night.

 

[tigerarmy40]

I just bought a 36x24x24 rimless tank that I have been setting up for a while now. Here is my hanging canopy, it is built large for lumenarc reflectors and I am planning on running either t5 or vho for suuppliment...I now am finding myself liking the look of a samller fisxture more and more cause this looks kinda of bulky hanging over the tank!

added a mermaid for a cmore custom look!

and here it is stiting on the tank even though it will be hanging when Im all set up!

 

[MrSandman]

Donw - That's awesome. Nice woodwork. Is that a pendant you mounted in there? Or just the reflectors? Is the ballast in tehre too or is that separate?

tigerarmy40 - Sweet lookin' tank. May i ask where you got it from and how much? Yeah, the canopy looks rather large. I'm sure DE pendants would fix that.

Everyone, thanks for the input. If possible, i'd also like to see the hardware you guys used to hang the canopy from the ceiling and the attachment point to the canopy and how it is adjusted, if capable.

 

[Giga]

sweet i'm tagging along for this one because i'm building my own tank and I built the stand might aw well build the light too!

 

[Donw]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11284439#post11284439 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MrSandman
Donw - That's awesome. Nice woodwork. Is that a pendant you mounted in there? Or just the reflectors? Is the ballast in tehre too or is that separate?

Just cheap hello lights de reflector with the glass. The two ballast, timers and fans are in the fixture. Its self contained with one cord and hung with geisman cables.

Don

 

[MrSandman]

Anymore designs/ideas people would like to share?

 

[Nammy]

bump