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robster
10/08/2005, 08:38 PM
I finally got my canopy finished. It was a delayed almost a month because my neighbor cut off some of his fingertips when using the table saw making it. Ouch. Anyway here it is. Let me know what you think. I just copied this post from my reef club website:

www.rasoc.org

My neighbor was nice enough to build me a custom canopy for my 37 gallon tank. His carpentry skills are superb. I provided the wood and hinges and he built it for a nominal fee. He did a really good job and said that he would consider building other custom/canopy jobs upon request. Let me know if you are intersted in speaking with him.

I used white poplar plywood. It is furniture grade wood for just $30 per sheet.
It was the only wood I could find that matched well with the stand.

I bought Orion 51 cfm fans. One blowing in, one blowing out. A little loud. Any suggestions for making them a little quieter. These AC fans are great for the price. Only $13.50 each and there is no bulky transformer to plug in. You can get them here. Lots of different sizes and speeds to choose from.

http://www.arcade-electronics.com/cgi-bin/webc.exe/st_prod.html?p_prodid=21303&p_catid=744&sid=7@mDZ21FQChj9-j-47105197945.6d

So far the temp is actually cooler than when I had it as an open top with a metalic silver egg crate suicide lid on it. I guess this is because of the fans blowing across the top. I am going to have to turn the heater up a bit. It is currently running 76.5 degrees.

The lighting is a PFO 250W HQI fixture. I got the idea of sitting it on top like that from Typhon back when he did this to his last tank. Thanks for posting your pics Typhon.

You can view the pictures in my shutterfly album here. I have never figured out how to insert pics in the post.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZtWLlk4as2Ei&notag=1

The only problem I am having right now is the support beam in the inside front. It is in the way of being able to stick my arm into the tank to do simple maintenance such as turkey baste the substrate. He put that there to provide ultimate support. I might decide to take this out.

zahner
10/11/2005, 01:16 PM
looks sharp, nice job!

Sugar Magnolia
10/11/2005, 04:32 PM
Yikes! He cut off some of his fingertips! Oh man!!

The canopy looks fantastic Rob, really clean looking.

robster
10/11/2005, 05:10 PM
Thanks Zahner & Sugar! Now I just need to figure out how to silence these fans. They are driving me nuts!

Pacific Reefs
10/12/2005, 01:30 PM
He cut off parts of his fingers and he still wants to make more canopies? Tough guy. But he did do an excellent job on that canopy.

ctreefer
10/12/2005, 03:06 PM
I like the way you have the hole on top for the pendant to go through. No need to build a super tall canopy and easy to adjust height of pendant. Also keeps a lot of the heat out of the canopy.

Nice job! I do cringe however at the injury. Just had a nice kick back from my table saw last night. Those require a lot of respect.

Paladin
10/12/2005, 03:11 PM
robster, did you just connect the fans to an ac/dc converter?

chrishet
10/12/2005, 05:50 PM
nice job robster! too bad about your friends finger. I do woodworking as a hobby and I see it all the time. you can't be too careful.

robster
10/12/2005, 06:56 PM
I bought AC fans which just plug straight into the wall outlet. I had one pulling air in and one pushing it out but it cooled the water too quickly. So, I had to make both push air out. Still too loud. I think I may try to use a light dimmer to regulate the voltage. I'm not sure if that will work or not. DC fans you can just hook up a 9 volt DC to regulate the voltage which reduceds the fan speed and noise. I got the lowest cfm rated 4" fans Orion sells (51cfm). I would have never thought that they would be too much flow or too noisy at only 25db each. I love the canopy. It cuts down on the light spilling out into the room. But those fans are annoying after enjoying the silent HQI fixture. I use to have a PFO Deluxe fixture on an old tank that had ICE Cap fans and those things were much louder. It was also in a different room. The tank I have now is in between the living room and kitchen which is where we spend much of our time. Ugh.

Paladin
10/12/2005, 07:38 PM
Yeah, I got a pair of Vantech fans that I hooked up to a variable speed ac/dc adapter, and I'm able to regulate the speed of the fans, which, of course, also affects the sound. I also added these dampeners between the fans and the wood of the canopy: http://www.xpcgear.com/vantecnoise120.html. I'm using 120mm fans, which should be the same size as your Orions. With the adapter and dampeners, that should help with reducing sound.

robster
10/12/2005, 08:48 PM
Geat idea on the dampers. I was thinking of trying some of that foam stick on tape. Since my fans aren't DC I'm not sure how to regulate the power.