Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
DIY Hood Canopy
has anyone ever made of different material or wood?
would be interested in how you designed it.
Looking to make a new one for 4 footer.
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I put one together a couple of months back for a DIY tank I was making. It was fairly straight forward i.e. four side and a lid! that sort of thing! Nothing complicated of difficult about it. Although things might get a little bit more tricky if you want a metal hood and you have to break out the welder I cant weld so it would be a problem for me. As for other substances like plastic, it might be a little bit more difficult to get the joins right and they might weaken over time. I recommend that you use wood (the type is up to you) as IMOP you can seal almost anything nowadays with the array of products on the market so water penetration some not be a problem. Plus screws are a great invention cutting out the need for detailed joinery!
Here are a couple of pics of the hood!
The underside of the hood as since been fitted with reflective material.
Lead me not into temptation, For I can find it myself!
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What type of wood is that u are using
i like the idea of the piece that lifts off the lid was there much to achieving that?
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The lid took a small amount of work, but I used a router to make the grooves so it cut the amount of time involved considerably. In fact I would go as far as to say that, If I didn't have a router I wouldn't have an access panel like in the picture.
IMO there is no need for the access panel to be recessed, hinges work fine and it would take less time. The only reason I did it was for aesthetics.
Regarding the ballast. The reason I mounted the ballast in the hood was due to the fact that it did not have a protective casing and it might be a bit of a hazard during water changes if situated around the tank. Where the ballast is mounted now is water tight and in the unlikely event that moisture does enter the sealed area, it will be drawn out by the heat of the bulbs and the two PC cooling fans running in alternate directions. The only problem I have found with the ballast mounted in the hood is that it takes up space that could be used for reflectors.
Lead me not into temptation, For I can find it myself!
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