Heres my canopy (doneish and on tank)

[shinyfish]

I am rather happy with the look. Perhaps a bit taller then perfect but not too bad.
Heres what the back looks like...(ignore the railing)

And the front opened...

My only problem seems to be that the back lets out a lot of light.. gonna try and figure out a way to correct that without completely closing it off..

Now its time to order some low light plants and fill the tank in a bit.

sorry about the awful quality

 

[Bk718]

Good job, what kind of light you placed in there? Regular shoplights?

 

[shinyfish]

Yea it was just a t12 shop lite with a 6500k bulb and a (im guessing) 10000k bulb.
I really don't know anything about lighting past that but having a flat surface i can mount stuff too is kinda makes it easy to switch out w/e i want. I want to stick with a low light planted tank for now just to make sure i can handle that then ill work my way up.

 

[Alan R]

Easy fix on the light coming from the back. Go to walmart and buy some black fabric from the fabric section. Cut to fit, staple it on. That is if the back is not normally visible. May not be bad looking fix if it is.
may have to use a 2-3 layers to black out the light.

 

[Rbishop]

Nice.

 

[shinyfish]

the back is visible, however i was thinking about more of an internal fix. The shoplight i bought leaves about half the bulbs exposed on the sides so was thinking about increasing the reflector a bit.. not sure how on that yet.

 

[Fordtrannyman]

NICE! I think the hight is perfect, you couldn't go much lower and still have a decent light fixture in there.
I really like the way you engineered the lid. Do you have a versa top on it too? Can it be opened enough without too much trouble?

The solution I thought of for your light escaping the back, would be a a narrow piece of aluminum the same length as the shop light with a 15 to 25 degree break and screw it right to the shop light. Two fold= adds more reflector and doesn't blind ya' when your behind the tank

 

[Hurley]

I really like how you did the lid. I will have to remember that when I make my next hood. Also, I don't think you could have made it much smaller. It looks really sleek.

 

[shinyfish]

thanks, really appreciate the comments.

yea modifying the shoplite a little was kinda what i wanted to do, even though the inside is white id still like to focus a bit more downward.

 

[Fordtrannyman]

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Do you have a versa top on it too? Can it be opened enough without too much trouble?

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