Hoods And Getting Rid Of Them

Most of my tanks have black plastic hoods which hold the lights. I think they are ugly and also a nuisance. Each is slightly different, but none is convenient. In some cases the whole hood has to be swung up to get into the tank and in others the hood has to be lifted off completely to do anything other than feed the fish or put a siphon in. So if you want to net a fish you either have to lift the hood off completely or swing it up, in either case you no longer have light. It's rarely possible to net a fish using just the front part of the hood which can be opened. Trimming plants is also tricky.

While planning to change over to LED lights, I realised that another advantage of these is that they have virtually no depth and so there is no need for a bulging hood which holds the fluorescent tubes. At present I am thinking of getting rid of the hoods and replacing them with flat tops, with LED lighting glued onto the underside. My idea is to have the top in two sections. The rear section would cover about 70%, the lights would be fitted to it and there would be small cut outs at the rear for heater and filter cables. The front part would cover the remaining 30% and could be easily lifted off to feed the fish or for water changes etc. In principle this seems a very easy thing to do and I think it would both be more convenient and more attractive, the latter because the tops would be much less visible than the present hoods. In addition, it would be much easier to fit the LED strip lights which is problematic in the existing hoods. They would be something like the hood on my Rio 125 which is in three sections.

The only question remains what would be the best material to use for these replacement tops. I have thought of acrylic sheet but that is quite expensive and would probably need to be black to match the tanks. I wouldn't want to use glass or clear acrylic which would let light through. Any suggestions welcome!

The aluminium sounds a good idea, not the cheapest but at least it should last forever.

Looking on EBay there are people who will cut to size. That would be essential as the nearest pre-cut size to my 800 x 350 mm requirements (4 tanks) would appear to be 1000 x 500 and for 600 - 655 x 300 (4 tanks) is 750 x 500 which would involve wasting a lot of aluminium (and money).

Rather than painting the top, I might try using black sheet vinyl. I've never managed to paint metal to look nice! I'll try everything out on one tank and let it run for a while before I start pulling the rest to pieces.

I'm not worried about the small gap above the water line. The tank I have which came with LED lighting fitted has a very small air space but it hasn't caused any problems. I really like the flat top look of that tank, it has a more modern feel. Which brings me back to the question of why virtually all tanks are still produced with fluorescent tube lighting and deep hoods.

Oh, if you do go for the aluminium lids, make sure that no part of the wires or soldiered joints touch the aluminium, otherwise you may cause a short circuit. In the past I've put a small piece of electrical tape underneath the soldered pads and used a glue gun to cover the open joints. It helps a bit with waterproofing too

As for fixing the LED strips, initially I relied on the sticky backing that they are supplied with.
That was a complete waste of time!

Then I bought some double-sided tape - that lasted all of two hours before completely detaching.

Finally ended up using a hot-melt glue gun. That did the trick. 

I'm was wary of using Superglue as it melts some plastics. My hood is plastic. 

Richard have you already purchased your connectors?

I chose the no soldering option and used these : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301681749440

They are a little fiddly to connect but as they're cheap they were worth persevering with.

I'm was wary of using Superglue as it melts some plastics.

Blimey!!! I guess I was very lucky then!