A user on the board requested some pics of my hood and the way it was constructed. Thought I would open this up to see a variety of how you can put together a lighting hood.

Here are my pics:

Front left side: (Showing supports for hood)

Front:

Back:

Front hinged up:

Full top hinging up (it hinges completely up, but this is me lifting it and trying to take a pic at the same time ) Also shows fan

I wanted something with a dual hinge - that way for everyday feedings I could just lift the front of the hood... but for big stuff I could lift the entire top. I think it works well.

Because I guess air blowing directly across DE halides can alter the color, I chose to put the fan blowing underneath the glass across the top of the water. I have found that only one fan blowing in across the top of the water keeps things plenty cool, in fact the fan only comes on a few times a day.

Any other ?'s let me know.

Very nice Shane.  I really like the dual hinge concept.  And it looks like it will be easy to clean the UV glass too.  There's satisfaction in doing stuff on your own

Here are some pictures of my hood.  I built mine a little different.  It's over a 6 foot aquarium so it's not an easy thing to get down off the tank so I wanted plenty of room to get my hands into the tank without removing the hood.  There is an inner framework of pine 2x2 stock.  The outside is beech with birch panels.  The top is open for better ventilation.  I have one fan blowing down from the top that keeps the hood well ventilated.  The hood houses two 250w MH, one 400 w MH and two 160w vhos.

Front of hood, closed.

Front of hood, open.  Plenty of room to get both my arms, head and feet into the tank.

Inside the hood showing the 2x2 inner framework.

Picture from the top of the hood showing the more or less open top and fan.

Thanks for the comments, guys. 

bhaight, the front of the hood is built just like your kitchen cabinets (if you have raised paneled doors), only I have three panels rather then one.  You need a router or shaper and special rail and stile (sometimes called cope and stick) bits to shape the outside pieces (again look closely at your kitchen cabinets to see how they go together).  Then another large bit to make the inner "raised" panel.  If you've never done this before, it might sound complicated but it's not.  But it does require specialized tools.  If you don't have these tools it's very expensive to go out and buy them.  Fortunately, woodworking is another hobby of mine, a lot of the furniture in my house I made, so I had the tools available to build my hood

Hey, I wanna play... Do y'all mind if I chime in and show off my new toys?

New halides and modified pc's in canopy with fans and diy moon light(blue led's).

Where do you guys get your fans, and what do you have to turn them on/off?  What kind of temp control is on them?

Thanks,

Rodney

I have a simple little fan like you get at radioshack.  It plugs into the same powerstrip as my lights, so whenever my lights are on (but a HD timer) the fan is on. When they are off, the fan is off.

I've done it like that for about 12 years.

Adam

Yup that's how my fans are turned on and off too.  Same switch as lights.

For the quietest fan you'll never hear check out the orion fans from standard supply electrical in SLC.  The 5" model (1400 rpm) moves LOTS of air and makes no noise at all.