[borohands8593]

Hey guys I had an idea for my tank today. I bought a light for plants that is supposed to either be hung or placed on the tank with legs that prevent you from using a hood due to how it connects on each side for abotu a 6inch span. I was wondering how to make a hood since I dont want any jumpers!
You know when you buy a glass hood and it comes with that plastic strip for the back you can cut to fit around filters and heaters? Can you buy this by the sheet anywhere so I can cut out essentially what would be a hood for the whole tank with a large open area in the middle where the light would be? What other ideas do you guys have to make up a hood?

 

[PfunMo]

I would not want the light to be open to the water from the tank. There are some mighty big splashes in my tank sometimes as well as a question about condensation getting to the electronics. For a light that stands up off the top enough, you might want to look into using eggcrate (light diffuser) panels. The plastic panels tend to bow down pretty quickly but it seems eggcrate might do better. Glass panels, cut to fit , might be best.

 

[borohands8593]

Yea I would love to make a templant and have a large glass piece cut but I am not sure where that could be done or how expensive it would be. any suggestions?

 

[Flippercon]

Cutting glass requires a tool that works pretty good. I would buy the tool and buy some glass and try it. If not you could go plastic sheeting from the Hd.

 

[PfunMo]

For me, that is an area that is worth paying a bit to have someone cut it and polish the edges so they are not sharp. I would want to go with thicker than normal glass as the lids do get a lot of beating around. I thought plex would be great but find that it bows down if I don't keep rotating the panel to let it bow back the other way. Any glass shop will do it for you.

 

[pistolpete]

I have built numerous glass hoods for myself. My favorite design so far is to use two equal sized glass strips. The back strip gets both corners cut off so that all the hoses fit through. Then I lay the two pieces on a table about 1 centimeter apart and perfectly parallel. put a strip of masking tape over the gap. carefully flip the pieces over so the masking tape is now on the bottom. Then mask off the glass and fill the gap with GE silicone I and smooth it so the silicone is slightly thinner in the middle. This becomes a very durable hinge. Obviously the glass has to be cut with the width of the hinge in mind.

 

[borohands8593]

thanks for the information guys. pistolepete, do you use HOB filters with you design? I like your idea but am unsure where to purchase the glass from, thickness needed, or how much it would cost. The tank is also a bowfront which makes things complicated, 24inch long and 15inch wide. are glass shops expensive to cut and polish the edges have you done this before pfunmo?

 

[pistolpete]

You just have to phone around there are bound to be a couple of dozen glass shops in Pitsburgh. You should be looking for 1/4 inch glass. Polishing the edges can be expensive and not necessary for your application. Tell then to ease the edges or just use sand paper and do it yourself. I am a tile setter, so I have the equipment to cut glass so I have not had to pay to have it done. I would expect it to be in the $50 range, but not sure, because curves can be a bit time consuming.
With an HOB you have to either have gap along the whole back, with some filler strips, or a slot cut out for the filter specifically. If you go with a glass shop you will need to make an exact template of what you want out of cardboard and bring it to them.

 

[Lestango]

I have been making my hoods of styrene replacement fluorescent light fixture panels available from all home improvement and lighting centers. They come in 2'x4' size. I cut a piece to fit, then make another cut far enough in from the front to allow me to service the tank. The plastic will want to sag but I have a cheap and easy solution for that. Also at the HI Centers you can buy an clear plastic drywall outside corner protector strip. It comes in 3' lengths. I buy mine from Ace Hardware in my hometown. I cut the strip so it loosely fits on the recessed lip on the tank from front to rear. I have only one near the center of a 4 foot tank and it eleminates sag in both the stationary part of the hood and the removeable strip. I don't even glue it in. It just lays there. I can lift everything off the tank if I want.

If you want to get fancy you can add angles lengthwise on top of the panels at the cut edges. It does help. This also makes lifting the access panel off of the tank easy to do. Make sure you glue it to the top of the panel where water won't drip from it into the tank using a clear water-proof glue.

And absolutely do not have an open lighting device unprotected from the humidity and splashed water from a tank.

 

[PfunMo]

I'm sure glass is a pretty common item in your area. Think PPG, a major brand, stands for Pittsburg Plate Glass! Glass is not cheap but not really a deal breaker for me. For the bow front, I would suggest getting one cut to fit the curve and fasten it in solid and then hinge the portion behind it. I should not have called it polishing the edges but rather just rounding them so they are not sharp. It only takes them a few minutes as they have a wheel set up and do it routinely on mirrors, etc. I'm not sure they even charge for that part. They don't like to cut themselves when wrapping the glass!