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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

New Tank Build - Canopy 2

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12 Nov 2013 22:05 #1 by Mr B (C B)
My second canopy is really simple but not as good in my opinion. It’s made for a 4’ tank and is made from 15mm pine veneer MDF and four 2” by 2” wooden blocks which support the entire hood at each corner of the aquarium.











This is the second one of these I’ve built – the first is in the dump so be warned: MDF will absorb water eagerly and once a tiny bit is absorbed the wood swells and begins to absorb the water much more quickly which will leave you believing you must have built the hood from cardboard. So this time I’ve gone bananas with sanding sealer and pine edging. I’ll also give it a coat or two of polyurethane.



The arm that swings up and slots into the lid isn't attached yet.This canopy is much smaller but much heavier than the canopy built from ply and 2” by 1” (which I would recommend) and it won’t last as long but it is easy to build.

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13 Nov 2013 09:56 #2 by Melander (Andreas Melander)
Great stuff!

Are pretty much all polyurethane varnishes aquarium safe or do you use a particular one?

Also, do you have any tricks to keep mold away?

Thanks,

Andreas

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13 Nov 2013 21:29 #3 by Mr B (C B)
I normally treat with a couple of coats of sanding sealer and then yacht varnish. Haven't really had any bother with mold to date, sorry.

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28 Nov 2013 11:23 #4 by Redser (Richard)
Hey this one looks so much simpler but again the access situation for me needs a hinged front at least, but great work
Q. would you see any benefit in treating the wood before building and then doing a final treatment on completion or not?

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28 Nov 2013 17:26 #5 by Mr B (C B)
Yes, I treated all the edges a couple of times with sanding sealer: treat, sand, treat, sand etc. and then put the iron on edging on but that's all because the last one swelled up and became useless. If I were to choose one it would be the other one, it's much lighter and isn't going to be as prone to water damage. Also, a flushing bit for your router really takes the hard work out of it.

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18 Aug 2014 20:03 #6 by Mr B (C B)
Since I built this I used it on a tropical tank and had lots of problems with condensation and swelling wood, almost immediately. I got my hands on a saw drill bit, think it was 50mm and drilled holes all along the back panel and then inserted small lengths (slightly longer than the thickness of the wood) of 50mm pvc piping. No problems since.

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