Anyone makes canopy

[bhg]

Has anyone on this board made a canopy before, besides socal, his canopy is too good for my old tank Just want to get some suggestions.

[Fishaholic]

yes I have made a stand and canopy for my 40g

heres a pic they cost me 130$ for all materials my labor for free
tanks pic is about 5mo old so..

[crstjohn]

Thanks Kamil - I can make custom stands, canopies, acrylic stuff, etc. but I also have a full-time job, two small kids, a wife, a yard, two aquariums, etc., etc., so I don't have a lot of spare time. If you are in no hurry, call me and we can discuss what you need. Also, materials are expensive and I don't typically stock any so small projects could cost more depending if I needed to buy a full sheet of plywood and only use half of it. As Fishaholic posted, materials ran him about $130, and depending if you wanted it finished (stained or painted) labor would realistically take between 6-10 hours @ $40/hr by the time I picked up materials and built it so a simple canopy could run you about $450!! I know this is way more than you want to spend but I can't afford to take my time and charge much less for labor (I can go to work on the weekends and make more than this)! My advice is to check out some of the many DIY sites available on some of the forums and DIY. You can get the materials cut to size (make accurate plans before you have cuts made though) for a minimal fee and other than that, all you need is a screwgun basically. Well I probably just screwed myself out of any future business but consider that it takes just about the same amount of labor to make a large stand or canopy as it does to make a small one so it would be more cost efficient to go big laborwise.

[crstjohn]

yes I have made a stand and canopy for my 40g

heres a pic they cost me 130$ for all materials my labor for free
tanks pic is about 5mo old so..

Nice job!

[bhg]

Thanks guys for all the suggestions. I am thinking about spending this weekend in trying to make one, maybe just an experiment project. But I could not think which way is better to join the piece together, glue, or L bracket, or screw directly from outside. Also light is a big problem for me, I have no experience about how to install the brackets for the fluscent lights.

Fishaholic, where did you get the edge of the canopy, that small extended part from the main board? How did you attach them to the main board?

[KingRB]

last time i was at petsmart they had a canopy for $95.