75 gallon canopy plans

Jaycoach · Jan 2, 2013

I am looking for plans to build a canopy. My rough deminsions are 48 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 21 75 gallons.

redfishbluefish · Jan 2, 2013

Here’s a quick overview of the canopy I just built for my five foot 90 gallon. My interests were to make something light that also allowed full access to the tank. I used fir strips and Â¼ inch exterior plywood with a pine molding…very simple and clean design:

Instead of using 2 x 2’s, which are commonly used in canopies, I made “L” brackets out of inexpensive fir stripping. The primary reason is strength over five foot, but also for overall weight….these are lighter:

This “L” bracket is more stable than a five foot 2 x 2. I’ll use these on the two top braces of the canopy.

With these “L” brackets installed, here is the carcass of the canopy….using the end pieces from the original temporary canopy (plywood with fir strip supports.) Note the two bottom long pieces are simply single regular pieces of fir striping. They will rest on the edge of the tank.

On the front lower frame member I attached a strip of 1/16 acrylic, jutting down a half inch. This will hit the front glass of the tank and keep the canopy from sliding back.

Primed the box with Kilz….here it is upside down without the door:

And here’s the door with the hinges set:

Here it is on the tank with the lights installed and finished trim molding:

And here it is with the door closed (tank lights not on):

Hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck.