Canopy with lights from ceiling

[Brett newell]

I am in the planning phase of a new build. It will be freshwater but that's beside the point. It will be a 210 and with the stand it will stand 6'2" I'm looking for inspiration for a canappy that will be attached to ceiling and will contain the lights. 8 foot ceilings.

 

[TheEngineer]

By "freshwater", you are referring to its age right? Like "here's some fresh water." This is prior to you adding salt to it.... right? :P

All kidding aside, with 8' ceilings I'd suggest avoiding a canopy. Let's say you mount the lights 10" over the tank. There's only 12" between the top of the light and your ceiling. Doesn't give you room to raise or lower it much if you need to do work under it. I'd suggest something you can get out of your way so you can get into the tank.

 

[jd371]

I just built one for the Aquatic Life Hybrid fixture. I wasn't happy with the way the fixture was hung so on my vacation last week I took some time to build a light box to place the fixture in and suspend it from the ceiling. I put a power strip in the box to keep all the wiring for the lights together inside and not have them hanging off the back, the only wire hanging in the back now is the power strip cord. The box was made with 1 x 10 boards and 1 x 3 for the molding with 1 x2 strips inside the box to support the fixture. Very happy with the way it came out and much cleaner looking with out all the wires hanging in the back.

Only thing left to do is paint the patched holes and hang the wall clock over the tank.

 

[redfishbluefish]

But you can still attach the canopy to the ceiling and have a door on it to make access easy.....but on a step stool with the top of the tank at 6'2". :eek:


EDIT TO ADD: Assuming a tall tank....and therefore the issue might be fitting the "grabbers" into the tank with, say 20 inches of clearance.

 

[UCF Alum]

Brett-
IMHO, I wouldn’t use a canopy unless you did something like JD371. The gas exchange isn’t nearly as good as it is without. Full enclosures, for me at least, had a significant effect on the pH as the cO2 builds up inside, in turn, effecting the o2 levels in the tank.

I’m sure that you won’t be having just a tank full of neon tetras with a 210 either.

Here’s my lights suspended from the ceiling using the Ecotech rail suspension kit when I first set it up.

 

[Brett newell]

No lol, freshwater tank. I have thousands worth of freshwater fish. But in a couple years I'll have another 210 salt predator tank that will be on the other side of the hall so you'll walk between 2 tanks to the other side of the house. But anyway, the led lights for this tank are less than an inch thick. My plan wasnt to hang the light enclosure but rather attach it to the ceiling.

 

[Brett newell]

I have a scaffolding type step now. Its about 12 inches tall and 4 ft long to get into tank. The goal is to have the center of the tank about eye level. I was thinking use 2x6s as the sides of the canopy so itll be just over 6 inches down from the ceiling.

 

[Brett newell]

Or if I use 2x4 as a frame on ceiling and 2x4 down to hide the lights then I'll have about 13 inches from the top of the tank to the bottom of the canopy

 

[EmperorsReef]

I just built one for the Aquatic Life Hybrid fixture. I wasn't happy with the way the fixture was hung so on my vacation last week I took some time to build a light box to place the fixture in and suspend it from the ceiling. I put a power strip in the box to keep all the wiring for the lights together inside and not have them hanging off the back, the only wire hanging in the back now is the power strip cord. The box was made with 1 x 10 boards and 1 x 3 for the molding with 1 x2 strips inside the box to support the fixture. Very happy with the way it came out and much cleaner looking with out all the wires hanging in the back.

Only thing left to do is paint the patched holes and hang the wall clock over the tank.

@jd371 How were you able to support this weight from your ceiling? Looking to do something similar

 

[jd371]

I located the ceiling joists and mounted the fixture to them. The way I did it, was I had the canopy resting on the tank and hung a string with a weight on it from the joist to each corner of the canopy to know where to place the eye hook bolt on the canopy and where to place the eye hook in the ceiling. In my case the joists where almost perfectly positioned. The joist on the right hand side of the canopy was just off a little. If you measure the eye hook on the left compared to the right the one on the right is just slight further away from the corner of the canopy than the one on the left but not so much to cause it to hang off centered.

 

[pal98111]

The incredible levitating canopy. Cool

 

[EmperorsReef]

I located the ceiling joists and mounted the fixture to them. The way I did it, was I had the canopy resting on the tank and hung a string with a weight on it from the joist to each corner of the canopy to know where to place the eye hook bolt on the canopy and where to place the eye hook in the ceiling. In my case the joists where almost perfectly positioned. The joist on the right hand side of the canopy was just off a little. If you measure the eye hook on the left compared to the right the one on the right is just slight further away from the corner of the canopy than the one on the left but not so much to cause it to hang off centered.

Can barely tell from photos! This looks great

would you change anything if you did it again?

 

[oreo54]

I am in the planning phase of a new build. It will be freshwater but that's beside the point. It will be a 210 and with the stand it will stand 6'2" I'm looking for inspiration for a canappy that will be attached to ceiling and will contain the lights. 8 foot ceilings.

So you have 1ft 10" space above the tank rim?
From post #8..why 2x4's?
You can build the " shade" out of much thinner wood or even say back acrylic.
Mount lights on aluminum rails mounted to the ceiling.
What lights are you considering?

 

[jd371]

Can barely tell from photos! This looks great

would you change anything if you did it again?

The only thing I would change is probably the Hybrid fixture itself. I believe they have a new fixture but instead of T5's they replaced them with LED's. Once a year I have to take the canopy down to change out the T5's, it's a two person job so not having to do that would be nice.