vest0830
05/26/2006, 08:07 PM
I thought I would post up the hood I built for my cube. Its working out great, having no issues what so ever with it. Next weekend (hopefully, if my mother in law ever ships my skimmer :mad: ) I am going to have to do a little mod to it to incorporate the HOB skimmer into the hood.
I built the hood out of 3/4" pine which is a little overkill on thickness of wood but its all they had at the time at the hobby shop on Kadena, so thats what I went with. I cut in 2 circles for my fan and one for an air inlet and a place for my wires to go through. Heat was an issue with the hood because the tank sits on our counter, directly under our cabinets. I accually dug a 3" fan out of the garbage (it was in a computer power supply) and then that same afternoon I went outside and someone was throwing away a phone charger, so I grabbed that also, wired it together and it works perfect! It pushes quite a bit of air out. I picked up some mildue resistant white paint from the makeman store and painted the inside to avoid any water evaporation warping the hood. -plus it reflects the light a little. speaking of light reflection, I sill want to put a reflector or some thing of that nature.
Anyways, onto the pictures.
the hood sitting on top of the tank
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/100321aquarium_hood_001.jpg
The opening which I intended to be on the other side of the hood :lol:
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/100321aquarium_hood_002.jpg
as you can see the inside of the hood. The light is a 175w hamilton metal halide light rated at 20k. You can also see the fan doing its thing, and you can also see the dripper tube I made for top/off and calcium.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/100321aquarium_hood_003.jpg
Here you can see the ballast sitting on top of the fridge, and you can also see the bottle for the dripper.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/100321aquarium_hood_004.jpg
and last picture, the back side of the tank. The fan came with a guard, so I thought what the hell...throw it on there to. If you look closely, you can see the dripper control.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/100321aquarium_hood_005.jpg
So thats the hood I built. This was pretty much the first wood project Ive done in a few years, so theres a few flaws with it, but for the most part, it functions the way its intended so I guess I did something right. :lol:
If anyone needs any help, let me know. Jeff also does some nice woodworking and Josh also built a real nice stand for his tank. Theres plenty of help in the area.
Ohh yeah, costs. I kept it under my $200 budget. Light, materials, hobby shop time...everything. The light I picked up from another reefer here from the classifides, and then the hobby shop on Kadena was put to use and I utilized that to its max.
I built the hood out of 3/4" pine which is a little overkill on thickness of wood but its all they had at the time at the hobby shop on Kadena, so thats what I went with. I cut in 2 circles for my fan and one for an air inlet and a place for my wires to go through. Heat was an issue with the hood because the tank sits on our counter, directly under our cabinets. I accually dug a 3" fan out of the garbage (it was in a computer power supply) and then that same afternoon I went outside and someone was throwing away a phone charger, so I grabbed that also, wired it together and it works perfect! It pushes quite a bit of air out. I picked up some mildue resistant white paint from the makeman store and painted the inside to avoid any water evaporation warping the hood. -plus it reflects the light a little. speaking of light reflection, I sill want to put a reflector or some thing of that nature.
Anyways, onto the pictures.
the hood sitting on top of the tank
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/100321aquarium_hood_001.jpg
The opening which I intended to be on the other side of the hood :lol:
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/100321aquarium_hood_002.jpg
as you can see the inside of the hood. The light is a 175w hamilton metal halide light rated at 20k. You can also see the fan doing its thing, and you can also see the dripper tube I made for top/off and calcium.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/100321aquarium_hood_003.jpg
Here you can see the ballast sitting on top of the fridge, and you can also see the bottle for the dripper.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/100321aquarium_hood_004.jpg
and last picture, the back side of the tank. The fan came with a guard, so I thought what the hell...throw it on there to. If you look closely, you can see the dripper control.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/100321aquarium_hood_005.jpg
So thats the hood I built. This was pretty much the first wood project Ive done in a few years, so theres a few flaws with it, but for the most part, it functions the way its intended so I guess I did something right. :lol:
If anyone needs any help, let me know. Jeff also does some nice woodworking and Josh also built a real nice stand for his tank. Theres plenty of help in the area.
Ohh yeah, costs. I kept it under my $200 budget. Light, materials, hobby shop time...everything. The light I picked up from another reefer here from the classifides, and then the hobby shop on Kadena was put to use and I utilized that to its max.