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 
) 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
The opening which I intended to be on the other side of the hood :lol:
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.
Here you can see the ballast sitting on top of the fridge, and you can also see the bottle for the dripper.
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.
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 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
The opening which I intended to be on the other side of the hood :lol:
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.
Here you can see the ballast sitting on top of the fridge, and you can also see the bottle for the dripper.
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.
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.
