55 gallon build: Update: Canopy about finished

I applied one coat of latex paint to the frame. I'll add a second coat in a bit. The objective of the white paint is to reflect any stray light back towards the tank. The exterior of the hood will be covered by birch and stained. The white paint on the exterior of the frame will be covered, so the painting it was a waste of time and pointless.

 

Front and sides tacked down. Next step is to cut the top and back. Then, cut the doors and trimming. Lastly, will stain and coat with a spar urethane.

 

Looking good

 

Thank you. It's coming along slowly. Might be another couple of months before water is introduced, unfortunately.

 

Okay, so I need some suggestions. I am struggling with the placement and the construction of my doors. I have been toying with the idea of one solid door that folds down as well as building two separate doors with a 2" gap in between (will be filled with 1/4 inch birch). In addition to that, I am toying with the idea of making the the header of the door frame being dropped down to 3" to match the bottom height of the bottom portion of the door frame. However, this would only give me a door of 8 inches high.

I plan on placing corner molding and trim on every edge of the tank, so having the extra space between the door and the top/bottom of the canopy would be good for that.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

I have a 290 GPH return pump a 1400 GPH powerhead to go along with a 400 GPH powerhead.

 

View attachment 52356

 

A few pics

 

New light arrived. It will be going over my 20 gallon for now. The lights are set at their lowest output setting right now.

 

Coming along real nice. Keep it up.