Good Evening Sharkguy,
Assuming you have some basic DIY woodworking skills, there are numerous ideas on-line for hood/canopy construction. You might start with a search on Google.com for "DIY aquarium canopy" or "DIY aquarium hood." I think last time I tried it returned something like 2700 hits. Basically all you're doing is building a box that fits over the top of the tank. Since your tank is so long my personal suggestion would be to make it in two separate sections one possibly six feet and the other four feet, since I'm not sure what kind of lighting you envision on your tank, those sizes may not work, just adjust accordingly. The "fad" in Europe right now is to go without a solid hood on reef tanks and just suspend MH pendents from the ceiling above the open tank. If you should decide to go that route my only warning would be to make sure you make provisions for raising the lights high enough over the tank to allow you easy access to the tank for maintenance. I know all that probably didn't really tell you what you wanted to know but in this *hobby* I've discovered that for every question asked there are no hard and fast answers. Good luck in your construction and, more importantly, good luck navigating those damn basement stairs
Later, Paul
