I varnished the whole of the inside including the exposed chipboard. I don't think the laminate is enough protection.

My original idea for mounting the reflectors was the use gutter brackets as shown in this thread. I decided against the idea because I am lifting the lights up with the hood and wanted to fix them in more securely. I just used the gutter brackets as a tool shelf in the end.

Following a request from Bloozoo2, here is a bit more info on the wood I used.

B&Q call it Furniture Board. They used to call it Conti-Board.

It is laminated/veneered chipboard as shown on this site and is the same stuff that most self-assembly furniture is made from, as are the Juwel stands (hence my choice).

It is available in many colours including black, white, beech, mahogany.

15mm thick is enough to make screwing together easy.

I made a first attempt (call it a prototype) with MDF, but MDF is difficult to screw into, makes a lot of dust when cutting and drilling and needs finishing on the inside and outside. It didn't paint well either, but that might have been me. The Furniture Board needs varnishing on the inside, but the outside is already done and matches the stand straight away. Most commercially available wooden hoods I have seen are also made from this.

I'm sure that a well made and finished pine (or other real wood) hood would look much nicer, but for ease of build I don't think you can beat this stuff.

this is my first time posting on this site and the reason i registered is because of this post. i have a rekord 70 and only decided a coupe of days ago that i wanted to build a new hood as i think the plastic 1 i have is crap.
i only have 1 question and that is do you have the fans sucking cold air in to the tank or blowing warm air out of it?

Hi ghostrider1878, welcome to TFF.

The above hood recently took a trip to the dump! Mainly because my lights broke and I decided to give up on a planted tank, but there is also a couple of other tips that I should add to this thread...

Give it more coates of varnish than I did, and possibly even varnish each part seperately before screwing together. Make sure to varnish over the hinges and any metal screws/bolts that are exposed inside.

I say the above because my hood started to show black mould and the bolts holding the fans were rusted. It's common sense anyway I know. I wanted to use plastic bolts but had the metal ones laying around.

I had the fans drawing air in from outside and blowing across the lights. I had the vent the other side so that the warm air was hopefully blown out of it. I guess there are arguments for the fans blowing in or out but I figured that the desk fan I pointed at my tank beforehand was blowing, so my hood fans would blow.

You might want to think about making the hood slimer too, if I made another one then I would try to. This might mean using smaller fans.

Good luck with the build and let us know if you need any help. Keep us updated with pics too.

Pretty awesome... but I still prefer to buy a hood instead of making one.

hi excellent idea i might consider adapting it for my juwel rekord 60, do i need 2 light if i have live plants.
Also i hope you dont mind me askin but how ch did it cost to make the entire thing
thanks

been planning on building a hood for my betta/plec tank as it has no lighting, and the current hood is made out of flimsy plastic (was a cheap tank). I'm not planning on doing mine exactly the same as yours...but this topics made it a hell of alot easier for me

great work

this is so cool