[bongobrian]

Well I finally finished building my canopy for my 46 bow. I wish I had a digi cam to share pics. I ended up painting the inside with 2 coats of white wood stain. I thought that would seal it up better than paint. The thing I'm wondering is, would it be a good idea to try and seal up all the seams between the wood with silicone? or is that total overkill? I just want to keep it from getting ruined, especially after putting in so much effort building it. Other than that, I'm confident it's going to work out great. I'll try to borrow a digital camera from one of my friends and post pics soon.

[Poseidon]

I would say why not?????

after spending all that time building and planning, it'll only take 10-15 minutes and overnight to cure....

Mike

[Reefland]

Get that digi cam, I would love to see some pictures!

I don't think I would use silicone, I think it would make a mess. You should consider putting on some type of protective coating, polyurethene or something to keep moisture from damaging the wood though; something more than just the stain.

Regards,

[bongobrian]

well too late, I put some silicone on a few of the areas which will be the most exposed to the evap. Another question I had was should I leave the glass on or not? I was talking to a guy at the lfs and he said I should leave it on. I guess there are pros and cons either way you do it.

Scott- you really think I need polyurethane? I thought the 2 coats of stain should seal it up pretty darn good.

[Firefish]

Personally, I don’t think you can over protect wood from salt water. I probably would've put the poly on it and then the silicone around the edges...about the glass top, I guess this would depend on how well your canopy is ventilated. The glass top would certainly slow down the rate at which your tank cools off, i.e. evaporation and such, plus you'd have to clean it often to allow the light to fully penetrate the tank. On the other hand, keeping it on will help keep the canopy dry and mold free and will keep the bulbs dry...fwiw

[Reefland]

I agree, I don't think you can over protect the wood from the moisture it will endure over it's life. I would definately look at some kind of protective clear finish and go for a couple of coats of it. Not only will it protect against the moisture, it will also help with the wear and tear that any funiture goes through.

Scott Z.

[Poseidon]

I would use the Glass tops... My tank is built in a wall no canopy to worry about and I still use the glass tops to slow down the evap. with my 55 sump running w/o glass tops I was adding around 8 gallons of RO water a week... b4 the sump was added I was only adding like 3 gallons a week....

So the Glass helps ALOT to keep the water in the Tank....

FWIW

Mike

[bongobrian]

Poseidon- that's cool thanks for the comment. What about heat? do you have problems keeping the tank cool? I want to use the glass too, but I'm worried once I get the halide on there, the temperature in the tank will get too high.

[Poseidon]

Thats where I've been fortunate, My halides are about 7" off the surface and I have not noticed any rise in Temp. But my tank does not have a canopy, so the heat from the bulb heats up the air in the room rather then the water. I have a window in the "fish room" that I leave open about 2" and the hot air just goes "out the window!!!" I added my halides in January, so i had a great source of cooling the room, come june, July I'll have to kick on the AC to cool the room and that way the tank stays cool as well...

Maybe Next winter I'll try and figure out a way to get the hot air from my fish room into the heat ducts and use it to warm the HOUSE!! LOL!!

Another thing I was thinking on is adding some sort of vents in the wall, maybe 1 or 2 near the ceiling and 1 or 2 near the Floor to get cool air from the Floor and let the heated air out the top... I know this will work, but I would prob need some Fans to keep the circulation going and that will add noise....

My friend is getting ready to add canopy to his built in the wall 150, just to keep the light from lighting his room and get more into the tank, I think that will hold the heat above the tank and cause the water to heat up in turn, but hopefully we can get enough fans built in to keep the temp cool enough.

I guess you'll just have to way the options, can u cool the tank enough with Glass tops to make it cost effective as far a replacing water instead... 5 gallons RO 1.95 at Kroger times 8 gallons a week= 12.50 a month in water!!! not to mention the extra it'll cost on the Consumers bill for the Halide...

[rayjay]

Contrary to what has been stated, I WANT my tanks to evaporate a lot. I drip with kalkwasser every night, and, the more evaporation, the more kalk I can drip in.