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Need help on getting T5's into a Oceanic canopy (36" / 70g)

C

Candi

I hope someone who knows far more then I do can help me.

I have a 70g Oceanic tank and just picked up a used canopy which I've been wanting forever... I knew my PC fixture wouldn't fit (it's actually over 36") but planned to upgrade to T5's soon (http://www.current-usa.com/nova_extreme_pro 36" x 12" x 4.5" ).

No fault of the seller, I stupidly agreed to buy it w/o measuring it myself after being assured it would fit since the interior of the canopy is 36 7/8" x 6 1/8" (so I knew it would be tight but figured I could drill vent holes in the sides if needed and use shorter supports then the stock ones if needed).

The problem is the seller forgot to take into consideration that when the top of the canopy is closed the way it fits together (2 ledges & middle brace fit into the bottom section) that there is only 4 1/8" of available height. The new fixture is 4 1/4" without any legs. One could in theory remove the middle brace but then you're still only left with 35 1/4" length and the fixture is 36" so no luck there.

I'm grasping for ideas here... my better 1/2 is way less then thrilled with me and I'm mad at myself to boot. All I can come up with is removing the hinges and the top of the canopy, then my fixture would stick up an inch or two over the canopy (sort of canceling out the whole reason I wanted one, to hide my fixture). Or I could look into getting a glass top (where? price?) and sitting the fixture directly on that but even then I don't think I could get the top closed as I think it would be about 1/8" to short.

or... and this is where I hope someone can educate me, is there some sort of retro fit T5 that I could get that would be similar in both price and output to the nova extreme pro I was looking at that could be somehow installed into the canopy itself (and who can I beg and plead with to have them help me do that)?

Thanks for reading all this and hope I didn't totally confuse anyone!

Candi
 
M

medachef

checkout reefgeek.com they have the icecap wired retros that you are looking for. they seem to be the most reasonably priced site out there. and they will blow the Nova extreme pros out of the water. of if you don't want the overdriven t5(this leads to a lessened life span on the bulbs) go with the tek light retros. their retro and bulb packages are great. I just got my tek light fixture with 4 bulbs for a great price. and they sent me a little baggie of jolly ranchers. But YMMV on the candy.

Joe
 
malulu

malulu

NJRC Member
Candi,

my guess is you already have the fixture, so getting a new set of T5s would not be an easy option.

if you can post some pics it may help to see exactly where is the problem area...

I have a similar problem on my canopy, i ended up with put some pieces of woods inside and closed to the bottom of the canopy, so it is raised about 1/2 higher than it should, that way, the light is *hidden* under the hook, but the outside would end up with the tank's top brace showing half way... I was thinking to use some wood trim to make the canopy longer in the bottom to cover that up - some time in the future... but it's been 6 months, and i now sort of not noticed that black strip any more...
;)

good luck.
 
R

rgarofalo

you could have the canopy supported with aluminum angle iron and use trim to cover the difference That would be the easiest way i could think of
then you could remove the lip that the canopy sits on and set it for what you need.
The angle iron should ber screwed on, The trim could just be glued or epoxied since it won't be supporting weight
 
malulu

malulu

NJRC Member
if you need to build with a T5 retro kit, instead of straight across horizontally, you probably can hook up the light bulbs with a little bit angle as DIAGONAL to compensate the different in length if needed.
 
C

Candi

Thank you for all the great posts/ideas, sorry for the delay in posting back myself but things have been crazy here with cooking for Thanksgiving and having family in town etc. Just ushered everyone out and I'm pulling the house back together ;)

I do (or soon will I should say) have the fixture from Current, I had bid online on it (current sells on ebay) and won so I will have to figure out a way to make it work since I got a really great price on the fixture. I'm thinking once it arrives I'll go from there, hopefully I could go with the idea of raising up where the canopy sits on the tank (the tank has the cherry finish so it shouldn't look to bad and like others have mentioned I should be able to come up with a trim if needed to hide it as well). If that doesn't work out I'll look at cutting some of the interior of the "lid" to gain some space. Wish me luck LOL worst case I'm going to be posting a great price on a new curret t5 fixture and look into a retrofit LOL
 
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