# 220 Stand canopy and Custom LED lighting build.



## mattwhoo (Oct 16, 2006)

Hello boys and girls. I am building a new stand and canopy for a 220 gallon tank I purchased from Craigslist. The tank has dual corner overflows. It was a saltwater tank at one one point but I'm turning it back into an cichlid tank for now. I may possibly convert it back to saltwater once i feel like spending a ton more money. I also wanted to build my own LED Lighting so I borrowed a lot of ideas from the reef central boards as well as used there stand calculator. I have no clue what I'm putting in it yet. I'm open for suggestions. Right now I have a 125 that had about 30 ps. saulosi. Over the past 6 years or so they have dwindled down to about 8. I was a slacker and did not take any real pictures of the assembly. Enough yapping here are some pictures.

Here is the original Sketchup I did of the stand









Here is the stand I went with an eggshell black.









Another









Here is one of the doors. I got them from rawdoors .com I don't really have the tools to build them. Everything else was done with a drill screws and a compound miter saw.









Here are the custom LED lights. Way overkill for a cichlid tank but my wife like then to be nice and bright. They are 3 Watt Cree LED's 24 Cool White and 24 Royal Blue. Each Channel is on a separate dimmer and can be dialed in that what ever i want.









Here is the top of the lights with the LED drivers and my wiring that need to be cleaned up before I install them in the canopy.









The lights and pumps heaters are all going to be controlled by a arduino micro controller. Again way overkill but I'm a geek and i like stuff like that.

Here is a pic of the canopy its sitting on top of the tank but its on backwards.









The top swings open and the lights will be mounted to the top of the canopy. The holes are for some cooling fans for the LED's. I have 2 50Lb Gas assist springs that will be mounted to make the canopy easy to open and close for cleaning and water changes.









Here is a side view of the canopy you can see how it opens.









Here is the stand with the doors and hardware attached









I still have some work to do and need to track down some help to move this sucker into the house. I also have to paint the room it's going into before moving it. I will update with some more pictures when i am done. Let me know what you think.

Matt


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## ChadRamsey (Mar 12, 2010)

wow. very impressive. great work


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## Bradyk (Sep 26, 2011)

Very nice! That design looks very fimilar to another one I've seen on here. Looks great and man that canopy must be heavy. Did you frame it up using 2x4's?


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Very nice work. I like the dark painted style.

Two small things to consider if they are worth it to you or not. I found opening the lid to feed twice every day was irritating. I have since added a small open port to the top of my canopy to drop food into the tank. Lazy, maybe, but I like it. Second thought depends on where the tank might be. I found light leaking through the joint where top and bottom close was not what I liked so I added a small strip of lattice inside to overlap the joint. It keeps most of the light from shining into the room so that everybody saw the joint first thing.

If you do put a feeding port in, try to not get it too close to the tank edge as I did. The food tends to wind up on top of the tank edge until I open the top and it falls in the floor. I learned a lesson but not big enough to want to change it.

Good luck with the rest of the project. Looking good so far. :thumb:


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## The King Crabb (Jun 28, 2011)

Loving it so far, excellent work =D>


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## mattwhoo (Oct 16, 2006)

Bradyk said:


> Very nice! That design looks very fimilar to another one I've seen on here. Looks great and man that canopy must be heavy. Did you frame it up using 2x4's?


I stole the molding design from a stand build I found here I think. The stand is 2x4 with a 2x8 for the top beam. Skinned in 3/4 birch plywood from lowes. I used the stand calculator from here

Here is a shot of the back to get an idea.











> Two small things to consider if they are worth it to you or not. I found opening the lid to feed twice every day was irritating. I have since added a small open port to the top of my canopy to drop food into the tank. Lazy, maybe, but I like it. Second thought depends on where the tank might be. I found light leaking through the joint where top and bottom close was not what I liked so I added a small strip of lattice inside to overlap the joint. It keeps most of the light from shining into the room so that everybody saw the joint first thing.


I have Gas assist springs in the lid so it can easily open it one handed and it stays opened. Just like the things they use on the trunk of a car. Also the LED's have 60 deg lenses on them so they don't leak out to much from the top or side but i will have to wait for the final assembly to tell for sure.


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## dark SSide (Feb 12, 2010)

How difficult was the led fixture to make. Any chance there is a write up coming? I would love to make or buy (hint hint, lol) a fixture like that.

Stand and canopy look great, can't wait to see the finished product.

Thanks in advance,
Josh


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

Yes, tell us about the lighting construction. I am looking to buy or build a LED daylight/moonlight system for my 110, 72" Oscar tank. Do you have any light output specs on the light design you've built? Will this lighting system be appropriate for growing plants?


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## Vadimshevchuk (May 23, 2009)

Beautiful build so far. Love the deep thought on the quality of lights and stand. :thumb:


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

Looking very nice! :thumb:


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## stevenp (Oct 13, 2011)

ya tell us bout the lite system, nice job on the tank :thumb:


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## mattwhoo (Oct 16, 2006)

For the lighting I wanted something that was nice an bright and more of the color of the saltwater tanks. I did most of my research on reef central. This is the kit i ended up going with. The LED's are 3 watt Cree LED's and are very bright. I would think you could grow plants but i have no idea on the number you would need. I know the saltwater guys are growing photosynthetic corals and stuff under them however they seem to usually have more lights. I don't have any type of meter but I did try them out over my 125 when I was done building them and they looked killer. The fish really pop with the addition of the blue LED's .This is the framing / heatsink I used for the LED's. They sell all kinds of brackets to hook it together as well. the other nice thing is that it gave me a place to tuck in the wiring into the grove in the framing. They don't produce much heat but they do get hot and have to be mounted to some type of heatsink or they will burn out. With out any fans I was easily able to hold the aluminum support with no problem. Again these are over kill for this tank but i wanted something that was dim-able and able to use a micro controller with. I have it setup with a slow ramp up and ramp down to simulate sunrise and sunset. The blues come on about 15 minutes before the whites and over the course of an hour go to 100%. I don't have any moon lights but I will probably add some in the future. I can also add another row or two of lights if i wanted with out to much issue. As far a construction goes just need some basic soldering skills and a multimeter. The LED drivers(power supply) are able to light 12-14 LED's each. I didn't take any pictures of putting it together but I can answer any questions you may have. I will be mounting them back into the canopy after dinner and will put up some pics of them all lit up.

Matt


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## vann59 (Jun 20, 2011)

PfunMo said:


> Very nice work. I like the dark painted style.
> 
> If you do put a feeding port in, try to not get it too close to the tank edge as I did. The food tends to wind up on top of the tank edge until I open the top and it falls in the floor. I learned a lesson but not big enough to want to change it.


That sounds like it would be easy to fix with a little wedge shaped 'ramp' or a chute to direct the food.


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## mattwhoo (Oct 16, 2006)

Here are some pictures of the lights mounted in the canopy










Here is a picture of the Gas assist springs for opening the top. there is one on each side. also shows how the lights are mounted to the top with some u bolts. you can see my 10 different mounting positions for the springs. Once I actually looked at the mounting instructions from where I got them from, they work like a champ.









here are the LED's lit up. The picture does them no justice on how **** bright they are.









This is the canopy open for feeding / cleaning with everything installed. The gas springs hold it open at 90 degrees. With out them the top is very heavy and unruly.









Here is a shot from the side with it open.


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## The King Crabb (Jun 28, 2011)

Very nice work! =D> Can't wait to see pictures of that thing with water in it! opcorn:


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## dark SSide (Feb 12, 2010)

Lights look amazing, along with stand. I am taking your pics to my lighting guy this week and see what he can put together for me. Thank you for the information.


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Looks great but shouldn't the piano hinge be screwed to the inside edges instead of the top? Just curious if you did it that way on purpose.


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## mattwhoo (Oct 16, 2006)

GTZ said:


> Looks great but shouldn't the piano hinge be screwed to the inside edges instead of the top? Just curious if you did it that way on purpose.


Unless your over 6' tall you will never see it. Also think about how hard it would have been to pre drill and mount the hinge on the inside. That canopy easily weighs about 80- 100 lbs. I would be very difficult to get people to be able to hold it in place to even get a few screws in place like that. The canopy is 7' long and even with the 4' hinge(the longest i could find at lowes) I ended up putting another 1' hinge on each end to keep it from flexing and twisting too much.


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## malady (Nov 20, 2011)

your tank is incredible

everything from the design, color, lights.. love it all


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## papasmurf (May 21, 2003)

I love the stand and the molding you added to it. I have been looking to do something similar with mine. I am currently running 4 54W T-5's (usually only run two) on a 125G tank and would like to upgrade to LED's as the T-5's unit is only 48" and I would appreciate the reduced heat and energy savings from the LED's. I like the aluminum pieces you sourced as it looks like it would be cheaper than the heatsinks that are usually sold with the LED kits and you could space the lights more evenly around the tank surface. What width of aluminum did you wind up using?


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## mattwhoo (Oct 16, 2006)

papasmurf said:


> I love the stand and the molding you added to it. I have been looking to do something similar with mine. I am currently running 4 54W T-5's (usually only run two) on a 125G tank and would like to upgrade to LED's as the T-5's unit is only 48" and I would appreciate the reduced heat and energy savings from the LED's. I like the aluminum pieces you sourced as it looks like it would be cheaper than the heatsinks that are usually sold with the LED kits and you could space the lights more evenly around the tank surface. What width of aluminum did you wind up using?


I used the 1 1/2" hollow 2 slot McMaster Carr Part # 47065T119


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## papasmurf (May 21, 2003)

I am really interested in how the LED Lighting looks. I am thinking of putting together a DIY LED setup for my 125g tank. I am thinking along the lines of a 72 LED (3w) setup as I want the tank to be very bright and I try grow plants in it from time to time.


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## mattwhoo (Oct 16, 2006)

I just got the tank and stand inside yesterday and hope to at least have some water in it soon. I will take some pictures when it's all setup. I will say I had the lights over my old 125 to test them out in the beginning and they are very bright. I only have 48 lights so I'm guessing 72 over a 125 would be putting out tons. The nice thing about the way I did the lights is that it would be real easy to add another row if I need more.


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## papasmurf (May 21, 2003)

I am probably going to go with the cheaper bridgelux LED's so they will not be quite as strong as the Cree's you used. I was just worried there would be spotlighting if I used too few LED's. BTW...that is the nicest stand I have ever seen someone make. I am going to try and incorporate some of the molding ideas you used when I have time to renovate my stand.


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## Vadimshevchuk (May 23, 2009)

Beautiful build so far. I considered building my own led light for my 90 gallon. I was considering going 40 1watt led but i couldn't find the right ballast and i found a good deal on 4 stunner strips. Not bad light output. What are you gonna stock with tank with other then p. salousi?


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## rotccapt (May 31, 2011)

just curious what are the dimensions of your tank? i am about to use the bridglux leds on my tank72"x36"x30" and i just wanted to compare the number of leds you have compared to what im planning


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## mattwhoo (Oct 16, 2006)

I'm Back! Sorry it took forever but I just got fish in it this week. I went with a mixed Mbuna setup, about 70 in all. Here are some pictures. Sorry for the weird angle but my desk is in front of the tank.



















And one of the new residents









Matt


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## mattwhoo (Oct 16, 2006)

rotccapt said:


> just curious what are the dimensions of your tank? i am about to use the bridglux leds on my tank72"x36"x30" and i just wanted to compare the number of leds you have compared to what im planning


The tank is 72 x 24 x 24 I have 48 LEDs 24 blue and 25 white. It's plenty bright for this tank.


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## JimA (Nov 7, 2009)

Looks great! Nice job with the build.


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Brilliant! Nicely done. =D>


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## S14Swap240sx (Jan 3, 2011)

what type of rocks are those?


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## mattwhoo (Oct 16, 2006)

S14Swap240sx said:


> what type of rocks are those?


The Lighter colored stone is just native North Carolina stone gathered from where they were doing some construction. The red stone is the next to the last one on this page. http://www.atlanticlandscape.com/gallery_pennstone.html


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## ej13 (Jan 19, 2005)

Was Just wondering how did you put the led's on the heatsink. Did u use their adhesive or did u screw them down? Also where did you get your your assisted springs? Great tank by the way. Im about to make my own led system and your tank is my inspiration.


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## mattwhoo (Oct 16, 2006)

Glad you like the tank! I got the Aluminum framing and gas springs from Mc-Master Carr The springs do not come with any type of ends on them. So be sure and order the correct connecting hardware. I used thermal epoxy to attach the LED's to the framing. I did not want to have to mess around with drilling holes and making sure one of the screws did not short out to the framing. Everything else I got from rapidled.com. Let me know when you get a build thread going I would love to see it.


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