First off... since their is a light question. IMO, I do not think 300 watts of VHO is too much light for a 29 at all, but that is based on how I would stock the tank... it might indeed be a bit overkill if you are just planning on shrooms and a few softies. Which if that is what you are planning TangTang I think the 150 halide would be really sweet... I would go with a high K bulb, and forego actinics all together, but that's just me. Plus you'll have those really cool "shimmerin' " lines only a halide can provide!
As far as the hood Cliff... well if you are dealing with friends for help that know wood and have tools then there should not be much of a problem. I'm a professional cabinetmaker and I rarely know how to answer threads that ask this... I have no idea of someone's talents/skills, knowledge and equipment available. So what I might consider a "cake-walk" can indeed be a nitemare for someone else. Just tell your friends what you want... basically a three-sided box with a cleat placed inside so the hood can rest on the top edge of the tank. Cleat far enough up on sides to hide the plastic trim on tank (if that's what you want). Now you need a lid... permanent, hinged, lift-off? Nothing like a scratch pad, tape measure and sharp pencil.
One bit of advice... if you are planning on building your hood to have a height in excess of six inches then you should either glue-up some boards to get your desired height or use plywood. I see all to often people make their hoods say out of 1x12's cuz they need the height and then a month later they have this pretzel thing going on.... all wood, NO MATTER HOW WELL SEALED expands and contracts with humidity. Usually the lumber bought at home improvement stores has a very high moisture content. Even though it is being placed in a very humid enviroment such as a aquarium there will still be shrinkage involved as it dries out. Properly dried wood will tend to take on some of the moisture. What complicates all this is that you have a "wet" enviroment on one side of the wood and a "dry" on the other side.
I'm gonna stop now....lol I can go on for the next half-hour just about the wood movement end of the whole thing! See why I don't answer these threads too much? hehehehehe
EDIT : Since I deal almost exclusively in hardwoods in what I build that is perhaps why I went on so much about using wood.... plywood can work wonderfully!...lol Just trim out the edges with solid wood or edge banding and seal/finish both sides nicely
