Unique Canopy Design

[lordofthereef]

Hanging it from the wall will look nicer IMO. Depends a bit on how high your ceilings are, but I was never personally a fan of long hanging lights from a ceiling.

 

[luv951]

I think the tank will look nice there, but I don't envy having to service, maintain, aquascape, move things inside the tank and access it in that position and in such close proximity to nice furniture. I know you can move the sofa, but IMO that would be an added chore I wouldn't want. That said, you will obviously not only need the ability to raise the light out of the way for all of the aforementioned, but it will need adjustability. I also think, like me, you'll want to conceal the wiring to preserve the nice look of your room and have a "finished" product. Maybe you can fabricate something similar to what I have for this. My light fixture and enclosure isn't very heavy so one stantion worked well. I'm sure you could used wood for this. Just need to be a little inventive. Keep us posted.

After looking at your setup again, I just noticed the external overflow, which makes things a bit tougher. Because your tank is euro-braced, use that to your advantage. You can support the lights and enclosure from the top of the tank. You'll still need to devise a way to raise and lower them, but it could still make the whole thing look very finished. The supports may only need to be front and back as you're encumbered by the projection of the mantle shelf. LED fixtures are very light so you don't need to over-design the supports.

The main position from which to access the tank will be to the right side as its shown in the pics. Being a cube, its the same access from any side, I just need to get the light out of the way. I have the frame constructed and it conceals the overflow box as well. But, ya, I am not really sure how I am going to do the lights. I am leaning towards hanging from the wall with the hanging mechanism allowing me to move the lights and also hiding the cords. I can go into the wall with the cords and then down and into the bottom of the stand.

Could you do a floating canopy that ends just above the mantle? You'd have a gap like Bilk does, but that tank looks great, and then your canopy would match the size of your tank.

I thought about this, and if it was not euro-braced its what I would have done. Having it to do over again, I would definitely go with rimless.

Hanging it from the wall will look nicer IMO. Depends a bit on how high your ceilings are, but I was never personally a fan of long hanging lights from a ceiling.

I tend to agree. We have 10 foot ceilings so it would be a long hang for sure.