Note: This design has been replaced by a new one.

AGA does not make a canopy (hood) for the 92 gallon Corner Tank - and for good reason. It was a challenge to design and would not be cheap to mass produce. Besides, I would probably not want a canopy from them anyway as I had certain requirements:

• Able to house my 3 175W 10000K metal halide bulbs with reflectors
• Ventilated to keep the canopy cool and prevent the halides from heating the tank
• Didn't want the cheap-o fluorescent bulbs and ballasts

So, I built my own. Here is what it looks like from the front

The canopy goes straight across the front of the tank and does not follow the bow. This is intentional because I wanted good gas exchange from the exposed water and air gap and I wanted it to be easy for my kids to feed the tank, especially if I was out of town.

The canopy is vented by two variable speed fans from Ice-Cap which I bought from Reefers. I originally had 3" fans blowing into the canopy but the tank got way too hot (87F), even with the hood entirely sealed from the tank. Once I went to the arrangement below, the tank almost got too cool (79F) and I had to turn off the cooling fan that was blowing air into my sump and the heaters kicked in! The acrylic sheet is there to keep water from being splashed onto the bulbs and serves as an air baffle to direct the air flow across the tank water surface and into the back of the canopy so the entire canopy gets cooled. The acrylic also prevents me from dropping stuff in the tank. The acrylic actually sits in the grooves of the tank and the canopy is rabbeted to fit over the tank sides. This allows me to remove the acrylic to clean it without having to disturb the canopy. This acrylic sheet replaces the glass cover that AGA sells and broke when the halides were on. I also have a piece of 1" aluminum angle across the front of the acrylic sheet to prevent it from bowing when it gets soft from the heat.

With the canopy open you can see the "T" reflector I made from specular reflector. I prefer the reflectors I got at Aquatic Lighting Systems since they did not have any slots cut into them that I had to fill in with extra metal. The lower left an is a 3" fan that is being used until my Ice-Cap variable fans come in. The upper right fan is a high volume fan that i replaced with another 3" fan because it was too noisy.

Below you can see the arrangement of the three halide bulbs. I fabricated a "T" from a 24" and a 16" specular reflector which I cut and riveted to make one reflector. The front of the tank is at the top of the picture. The plugs on the right are my currentmaker.