DIY Nano Cube Canopy
- Thread starter redfishblewfish
- Start date
redfishblewfish
Member
Thanks Mussin!
Hopefully here's the final build part of this canopy"¦.the new top cover, lights and moonlights. The moon light (EBay "“ ca $10), was hardwired and therefore I had to drill a big hole into the top to slide the light in (7/8 inch hole). I made a plug to cover this hole. You can see this plug in photos below.
View From the Inside (actually I have the canopy off the tank and upside down.):
View From the Top:
View Form the Front (with camera lens level to the top):
I'm so happy with the way this build turned out, I'm now thinking of the design of a new stand"¦..about four or five inches higher than the current stand, and it will have the bellied front, just like the canopy. :dance:
redfishblewfish
Member
This build seems like it is never-ending. A fellow reefer told me I’d have this problem, and he was right…..condensation. It was OK when the lights were on, because I think the slight amount of heat coming off the lights kept it at bay. But after one night, with lights out, this is what I found on the front wood:
And the light was actually dripping condensation:
So 1/8” plexiglass was cut and held in place by a frame:
I remain having a slight bit of concern over the amount of condensation on the inside of the canopy. Just have to keep an eye on it. At least the light will remain dry now.
And the light was actually dripping condensation:
So 1/8” plexiglass was cut and held in place by a frame:
I remain having a slight bit of concern over the amount of condensation on the inside of the canopy. Just have to keep an eye on it. At least the light will remain dry now.
redfishblewfish
Member
Thanks Peppie.
This really is turning into a never-ending project. The condensation is so bad (and by the way, the standard JBJ hood condensed like crazy as well), that water is dripping off the bottom of the doors. Now I closed this up to minimize evaporation, but now I’m going to have to open it up some, and find a balance between condensation and evaporation.
So here’s the first shot at handling the excess condensation. Since I’m going to build a new stand, I used one of the grates in the current JBJ stand to vent the canopy. I cut into the upper back panel and applied a small amount of silicone. I’m going to try this passive approach first to see if this cuts down the condensation.
This really is turning into a never-ending project. The condensation is so bad (and by the way, the standard JBJ hood condensed like crazy as well), that water is dripping off the bottom of the doors. Now I closed this up to minimize evaporation, but now I’m going to have to open it up some, and find a balance between condensation and evaporation.
So here’s the first shot at handling the excess condensation. Since I’m going to build a new stand, I used one of the grates in the current JBJ stand to vent the canopy. I cut into the upper back panel and applied a small amount of silicone. I’m going to try this passive approach first to see if this cuts down the condensation.
redfishblewfish
Member
Ventilating the Canopy (The saga continues)
The one rear vent wasn't enough. So six more vents were added to the top of the canopy. At first four, but that wasn't enough, so two more were added:
The way this was done was to first drill holes in the canopy top using a two inch hole saw. The hole was slightly enlarged using a rasp.
The idea was to then fill these holes with plastic knock-out test caps ($0.25/each at HD)"¦..
"¦"¦that were cut with groves to allow ventilation.
This was easier said than done. Here is how I did this and the difficulties I had.
First the cap was marked where the tab was on the top of the cap. I wanted to make sure this tab was in line with the saw blade so that it would be cut off. The cap was then hot glued to a piece of scrap plywood.
On the left side of the scrap plywood, ¼ inch marks were made. The saw blade has a kerf of approximately 1/8 inch, so spacing ever ¼ inch should leave approximately 1/8 inch of plastic. A piece of tape was applied to the back rest of the saw table and a reference line was applied. So now the plywood can be moved in ¼ inch increments to this reference line to make the cuts in the cap.
Now for the problems: No matter how slow, or how deep, or shallow the cuts, the cap would get torn apart by the saw blade. I first tried duct tape on the front edge of the cap, and finally covering the whole cap with duct tape. This helped in only keeping the cap from total self-destruction. I was still breaking one or more connections of the plastic to the edge of the cap, but the tape was now holding them from getting totally torn off. Of the nine caps I ended up cutting, three were total losses, and only one was cut that was perfect. The rest had one of more breaks that were fixed with a drop of frag glue. Here are two caps, one where I was first experimenting taping just the front edge and the other were I taped the entire top of the cap.
The caps were then taped and painted with flat black paint. If this doesn't resolve the excess moisture problem, the next step is to remove the top altogether.
The one rear vent wasn't enough. So six more vents were added to the top of the canopy. At first four, but that wasn't enough, so two more were added:
The way this was done was to first drill holes in the canopy top using a two inch hole saw. The hole was slightly enlarged using a rasp.
The idea was to then fill these holes with plastic knock-out test caps ($0.25/each at HD)"¦..
"¦"¦that were cut with groves to allow ventilation.
This was easier said than done. Here is how I did this and the difficulties I had.
First the cap was marked where the tab was on the top of the cap. I wanted to make sure this tab was in line with the saw blade so that it would be cut off. The cap was then hot glued to a piece of scrap plywood.
On the left side of the scrap plywood, ¼ inch marks were made. The saw blade has a kerf of approximately 1/8 inch, so spacing ever ¼ inch should leave approximately 1/8 inch of plastic. A piece of tape was applied to the back rest of the saw table and a reference line was applied. So now the plywood can be moved in ¼ inch increments to this reference line to make the cuts in the cap.
Now for the problems: No matter how slow, or how deep, or shallow the cuts, the cap would get torn apart by the saw blade. I first tried duct tape on the front edge of the cap, and finally covering the whole cap with duct tape. This helped in only keeping the cap from total self-destruction. I was still breaking one or more connections of the plastic to the edge of the cap, but the tape was now holding them from getting totally torn off. Of the nine caps I ended up cutting, three were total losses, and only one was cut that was perfect. The rest had one of more breaks that were fixed with a drop of frag glue. Here are two caps, one where I was first experimenting taping just the front edge and the other were I taped the entire top of the cap.
The caps were then taped and painted with flat black paint. If this doesn't resolve the excess moisture problem, the next step is to remove the top altogether.
