Wooden top

[Clyde]

I have a 20 " ten gal tank and have 24" T5 lighting, Corallife. I want to make a cover to hold light and make tank look good as well. Any ideas?

[Integral9]

I have a 20 " ten gal tank and have 24" T5 lighting, Corallife. I want to make a cover to hold light and make tank look good as well. Any ideas?

 

Here's the gist of what I did. I have a 30gal (30") and a 24" Outer Orbit. The light is slimmer but wider than the tank. To make it look good, I built a frame out of 2x4s the size of the tank and then mounted the hanging kit to it. Around the frame I put molding to make it pretty. Painted the 2x4s black to hide them (but I would paint them whatever color the walls are in your house, mine are "Deep Magenta") and painted the molding the same color as the rest of the molding in the room. I bolted the whole thing to the wall, since the ceiling above my tank is a sophit and not structural, using 4 5" lag bolts. Looks like a built-in now.

 

Extra Credit:

Inside the frame, I installed some rails out of scrap wood and hung the light from a 2x4 on these so that I could take the light down for maintenance or move it back and forth.