What wood to use for a DIY 3ft canopy?

Howdy, I need to setup a new 3ft and have to make a lid what wood should I use?

 

Oak Plywood or Birch Plywood?

 

@DCWarHound I was also thinking plywood will be the best just needed to make sure. BTW whats the diff between oak and birch? colour?

 

Oak is heavier because it's denser,you can also try pine.

 

Ok thanks alot

 

You can use marine ply....don't use laminated pine shelving as it warps!

 

I can't find a place that sells marine ply so will have to use normal ply.

 

Construction industry use marine ply. Phone builders maybe?

Marine ply is better than standard shutter ply as it can handle moisture better.

 

I tried builders express, warehouse and a few other places and can't be found. So I was thinking of painting the inside with resin, good idea?

 

Should give you a nice waterproof finish. What happens if you get flex in the lid due to heat/moisture. Will the resin crack?

Whatever you decide, just make sure that it is nicely sealed and that it has had breathing time so that it's not toxic. If you are going with T5's they generate a lot of heat so might cause your product of choice to fume.

 

hmmmm back to the drawing board

 

Shutter ply is an industrial grade of marine ply. It is used in the industry as formers to pour wet cement into when making columns etc. it is used repeatedly, until it virtually disintegrates from being bashed around. The reason it's not as well known as commercial grade is that it's got a real rough finish and is therefore not popular. You'll have to sand (lots of elbow grease) and then seal with WOODOC 50 or 55.

--- Woodock 55 For exterior use where a tinted, gloss sealer is required. Provides UV-
protection and is water repellent. It is used extensively on yachts, boats and all exterior woodwork on
buildings exposed to conditions of harsh weathering. Not suitable for use on
hard, dense wooden decks. ---

The stuff's expensive but works... I've been using shutterply for years, not only for tank cabinets and stands, but also in my workshop for work benches etc. very versatile and can take an amazing amount of abuse. It's also less than half the price of commercial grade marine ply.

If you do go the shutterply route, make sure you draw a full cutting list with exact sizes as most places will cut for you if you buy from them...
Regards
Barry


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Oh. Regarding heat! Don't mount your light ballasts in the cabinet. Try mounting them in your tank cabinet if you have one, or of not, then buy a sheet of allumimium and mount your entire light assembly on it, then screw it into your hood. The allumimium will act as a good heat sink and dissipate the heat generated evenly, instead of in one spot.


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@Barry.M Thanks so much,this info helped a lot.Lucky I got sanding machine if needed

 

The T5 I will be using is a complete unit, so will have to mount it just like that.

 

That's ok. Try to mount it onto a strip of alluminium first though. Then into the cabinet. You may want to monitor the heat in the canopy though and if it gets too hot for comfort, (remember that it will heat the tank too) then fit two cheap R25 PC fans on opposite sides of the lid. One blowing cool air in, the other sucking warm air out! The PC fans run on 12v dc. You will need a small 12v DC power supply.


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The case of the light fitting is alluminium, lucky I got a few pc fans and power supplies laying around at work will install them if needed.

 

Ok, then you shouldn't have an issue with the paint and the heat. Also being winter, you may find that with the heat from your light unit, your tank heater won't have to work so hard! I'd still monitor it though.


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That's why I want to make a lid because of winter, plus don't want to cut my plastic lid to much it doesn't look nice

 

Cool. I think the wooden lid is better. Much sturdier and a lot less water loss due to evaporation. I use aprox. 20L a day in topping up.
I often had the plastic lids sag, due to the weight. I made a glass lid on my one setup and suspended the lights from the ceiling. Had a lot of jumpers in there. Most of my other setups are open top, allows me to raise or lower the lights according to the growth I want. It also depends on what you want from your scape! I like the idea of plants cascading out of the scape as well. I'll purposely cut my glass to have my water level 5 to 10 cm beneath the rim. I'm building one now, where I'm planting a HOB filter and allowing the plants to grow immersed and cascade down, into the tank. The scape will progress from there!


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