What would you do?

[Everyones Hero]

I finished the frame & front of my canopy tonight. Also got my lights in.

I decided to mount my ballasts on the top of the wood my lights are mounted to & to keep the top of my canopy open. Less heat buildup & less work for me to do (my first wood project & I'm using all hand tools.)

Here's a pic of the tank as of now:

My girlfriend told me it would be a good idea to run silicone in any gaps between the wood even after it's all sealed. She said that water can buildup in even the smaller cracks, sit there, & cause the wood to rot.
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I wish I had seen that post about the drawer rollers before I did mine. Mine are just mounted to a sheet of wood that lays on a support I built into the frame. It'll work, but having those rollers would have made it 10x better.

Same thing with the toy box hinges.

I've got to go to Lowe's to get my paint/sealant anyway, might as well see if they have those hinges while I'm there.

 

[One Dumm Hikk]

Hero, it looks nice. The drawer runners definitely make it easier but you can do it with just the shelf. If you have clearance and room, what I did with my drawer was cut a piece of plywood that is 1/4" smaller than the inside of the canopy. The drawer box is about 2" smaller on each end. It allows the drawer runners to mount to the side of the drawer box and then to a drawer runner board so that they are hidden from beneath.

 

[sphinx105]

Hero, its looking good there!

I got some toy box hinges from Woodcrafters. I build a Hope Chest to match our bedroom furniture to be used as a bench at the foot of our bed. The top is 42” by 20” ¾ oak ply with solid oak trim and a cushion. I used a piano hinge to attach the top as a lid. It opens pas 90 degrees so I thought it would never fall down on me as long as opened it up and leaned it back against the bed. But, oh, the chest got pushed up against the bed and I opened it up to put a quilt in there for storage and BAM it fell back closed and scared the breath right out of me. So, I went searching for locking hinges to hold the lid up. These are sold by supporting weight and have spring counter balance in side of them. Once the lid is opened past the balance point, it stays up until you push it back down again.

I was thinking about not using the drawers slides either for the rust and corrosion factor; and just have the ¾” light rack board rest on a channel of made from hardwood strips on either side of the canopy to make a guide to slide the light rack into. I was going to use both an upper and lower rail so when I pull the lights out over half way there would not be the tendency for it to tip down on top of me.

I may have to revisit the drawer slides. Right now my inside hood dimensions are 49” side to side, the drawer slides take up ½ each. So 2 x ½ = 1, plus 48” standard plywood width gives 49”; just an exact fit. Back to the drawing board. I feel like I never going to get to building anything because it is taking me so long to plan this out. My previous planted freshwater tank stands and hoods took about a day to draw and a weekend to build. This one is way more complex. Tanks for the ideas.


Right now the plans show the light rack about 80” off the floor with the top of the hood at 87 1/5” off from the floor. Stand height = 40” Tank height = 25” Hood height = 22 ½” (24” less 1.5 to cover the top of the tank plastic frame) Total = 87 ½ “ tall. To mount the MHs at 12” off the water surface (assuming the water line is at 64”), they need to be centered at 76”, with the reflector/socket clearance of about 4” the light board needs to be 80”. I was hoping, the lights would be a little lower so they would not shine in my eyes when the hood doors are open for feeding, but it looks like there is no way around that.

I will post new drawings when I get them updated with the taller hood plans.

 

[One Dumm Hikk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13183810#post13183810 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sphinx105

I may have to revisit the drawer slides. Right now my inside hood dimensions are 49” side to side, the drawer slides take up ½ each. So 2 x ½ = 1, plus 48” standard plywood width gives 49”; just an exact fit. Back to the drawing board. I feel like I never going to get to building anything because it is taking me so long to plan this out. My previous planted freshwater tank stands and hoods took about a day to draw and a weekend to build. This one is way more complex. Tanks for the ideas.

I wish I could take pictures of my canopy but I can't. Its in storage at the moment.

If you take a sheet of plywood and rip it down the middle, you have a piece 24 x96. When you cut the bottom shelf for the stand off of it, you will have a piece left over to make the full width drawer bottom for the canopy. The shelf will be 47" (assuming a 48" stand and a 1/4" dado for the shelf).

I can't draw worth a flip in Paint so bear with me.

The black is the drawer box itself.
The red is the plywood and goes the full length (It is 1/4" short for clearance).
The blue is the drawer runner.
The brown is a filler piece I put in it to allow for easier drawer adjustment.
The orange would be the vertical side of the canopy.

The drawer runners are above the plywood and mounted to the drawer box. They aren't entirely protected from the humidity but they aren't directly open to the tank.

One thing you need to be careful of with no runners is that every time you slide the drawer out, it is going to rub the finish off of it and you will eventually end up with no protection to the wood. And, make sure you put some kind of stop on it to keep from pulling it out too far.

 

[sphinx105]

Thanks for the drawing. I can't draw with Paint either. I have an older version of Turbo CAD, it is a bit more than my old PC can handle so I'm not about to spend the $$ on the software upgrade.

It looks like you made an actual drawer "box." I was thinking about putting the slides directly on the 3/4 board as a rack, like a keyboard drawer. I will have to visit this in more detail when I get the hood frame built. I like to think and draw in advance cause when I fire up the saw I can't no longer think strait - I have to have drawings to go by.

Here is the latest idea:

88" tall. Oak ply on 2x4's. Solid oak for the doors. 3 pieces, bottom stand, back and hood. The back is bolted to the stand before the tank is positioned. The hood rest on the tank frame and has two bolts with wing nuts attaching it to the back so it can be somewhat easily removed. The light rack will be removable, not sure how I'm going to make the slide part yet, drawer guides or rails.

The only problem I see now is the weight of the flip up part of the hood front. It will be rather heavy and I will have to attache the hood to the back to keep it from tipping over when open.

 

[One Dumm Hikk]

Yes, its a full drawer box that I have on mine. Didn't trust putting the runners directly into the side of a piece of plywood. And, was trying to make sure the plywood that the lights attach to didn't sag in the middle.

 

[Everyones Hero]

The runner idea wouldn't work with my canopy anyway. My lights are maybe 1/2" shorter than the width of my tank/canopy.

Sphinx- Have you thought about running a support across the bottom front of the canopy? It would allow some of the weight from the canopy to sit on the front of the tank & would keep it from bowing.

Then again, I really don't have any woodworking experience.

I have a support running across the front on the top & bottom & a 3rd on the rear bottom (was supposed to be top, but it was 2AM & I wasn't thinking straight.)

My lid opens like you are planning to have yours open & it doesn't try to tip forward. I think having the canopy deeper than the tank helps counterbalance the lid when you open it. Only downside to attaching the canopy to the stand would be trying to remove it.

 

[One Dumm Hikk]

Hero, do you have any issues with the shelf that your lights are mounted on sagging? When I first cut my shelf for the lights, I was going to make it just a single shelf. I sat the top and the shelf on supports and within an hour or two I was seeing a sag in them.

 

[Everyones Hero]

No sagging issues yet. The board I'm using is a 1"x12". It sits on the edges of the frame I made. If it starts to sag I'll run the extra 1x2 I have across the middle to see if that'll fix it.

This is what I've got going on:

I still need to finish the sides, paint it, seal it, & clean up the wires.

 

[sphinx105]

Hikk, you are right, I may need to put some 1x2s on the front and back of the light board to prevent the sag.

Hero, the hood looks good. I love the pine. Our freshwater stand and hood are made out of knotty pine.

Now that I see the pictures I understand the hood being larger than the tank. I may need to look at my idea again. I was going to use a back that extended above the tank and have the hood set in front of that and make the hood just to fit the top of the tank to keep weight down. I feel that, at least in the beginning, there will several time that the whole hood will have to be removed until we get things arranged and set up, and I wanted the hood to be as light as possible. That's another plus about the lights on a removable rack; you can take them out to make the hood easier to remove.

So If make the hood the longer part and shorten the back down to the top of the tank, there would be enough counter weight to eliminate any tip problem without having to add some kind of "bolts" to hold the hood to the back. Also, I could use some trim work to hide the joint between the back and the hood.

 

[One Dumm Hikk]

sphinx, test it with a 1x2. If I remember right, the 1x2 I tried it with wouldn't keep the sag out of it. I went to a 1x4 (pine) to keep the sag out of it.

The 1x12 is a good idea. I used plywood on my drawer because I didn't want to glue up a piece 24" wide and deal with the cupping issues. It was easier, simpler, cheaper on me to use the plywood. Especially since I had the plywood and didn't have the pine at the time. Although all of the internal structure (braces) in the stand are pine.

I have the same scenario with mine where there is a filler piece between the stand and the canopy going up the back of the tank to hide the dead space. You don't have to add any trim to it though. You just need a way to secure it to the canopy and the stand.

If the stand and canopy sit outside the tank dimensions, then you will have a perfect place to put the filler piece. It will just sit flush with the tank instead of flush with the stand/canopy. No need for the extra trim as the joint isn't flush with the face.

 

[One Dumm Hikk]

Sidenote: sphinx, you have a PM from me. Not sure if you saw it or not. I will be in Central Alabama nearly the whole month of September and would love to come talk to you, help, and brainstorm with you on it if you want.

 

[sphinx105]

Thanks, I'll check the PM. Still learning RC.

 

[Everyones Hero]

Are you saying shorten the back of the canopy so it's flush with the top of the tank?

I wouldn't do that. If you do you'll run into issues with any plumbing you have going over the back of the tank (I lucked out. My canopy is just big enough for the rear support bracket to clear the U-Tube of my overflow box.)

You'll also run into the problem of having to run all of your electrical over the back of the canopy, which means you'd have to unplug everything if you want to remove the canopy. That's assuming you put a brace across the bottom of yours.

 

[sphinx105]

I had designed the stand in three parts, base to hold the tank, back to fill in the space between the tank and the wall, and hood to set on top of the tank. The back part runs up the back of the tank about 6" deep to the wall and extends above the tank by the height of the hood about 24". Then the hood sets directly over the tank but does extend over the back part. The drawings show a line running up the back or the stand this is the back part with the hood butting up against it on the top.

I am considering having the back part stop at the top of the tank and not extend up and then have the hood about 24" deep instead of 18" to cover up the back part as well as the tank. I am still working on that idea as I had planned to have some electrical connection in the extended part to make it easier to remove the lights.

 

[One Dumm Hikk]

sphinx, instead of having the connection made above/behind the tank, have the connection made on one side right behind the tank, and you can attach it to one of the vertical filler pieces. Another idea I have had with mine was to have one of those retractable extension cords mounted in the stand. Leave it extended to reach the canopy. Whenever you want to remove the canopy, you unplug the canopy, reel it in to get it out of your way, remove the canopy.

 

[aztecaphoto]

Hi there:
For the stand, check this post.
Is very simple and sturdy.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1169964

 

[sphinx105]

I had big plans to start on the 90 gallon stand this past weekend but the weather was so rainy that I could not go to Home Depot and get the lumber.

So, we moved the 45 gallon freshwater earlier than I had expected instead of starting on the new stand. The 90 will go where the 45 was so it had to be moved anyway. We rearranged our fish tanks to free up the 45 to hold the live rock until the 90 is ready. So, the freshwater fish had to be moved into a smaller tank. Now the live rock is happily resting inside instead out in the garage in the heat. We threw in a few snails and hermits to work the rock while it waits on its new home.

 

[sphinx105]

We started on the stand today. The frame is 2x4 setting on a 2x2 bottom with 1/2 ply deck. The inside is being primed with some latex primer. I need to chalk the joints before putting on the next coat of primer.

I am not a pleased with the 2x4 construction as I thought I would be. Even with a good miter saw and clamps it was hard to keep the joints lined up. Good thing we are going to skin it with 3/4 oak ply. That will help with any alignment problems.

 

[DMBillies]

Looking good so far.

Why are you going to use 3/4" ply to skin it if you went with a 2x4 construction? Seems like you wouldn't need it. And if that's the case, then you're just spending money and adding weight.