The reason you may want a hood is if you have jumpy fish. Open tops evaporate fast and you can lose fish. I have both.
Also the u shaped mini CFLs do give off a good amount of light since they are designed to go sideways.
By the time you buy clip on fixtures and bulbs how much is that ? Is that without a glass top ?
Your way works. For sure. But it depends on the look you want.
EC is great stuff, but pricey. Yes plants like it, but the nutrients will run out and then you still have to add root tabs.
Blasting sand is super cheap. I use black diamond. I top with CaribSea just cuz it's pretty.
I have super expensive AquaSoil and super cheap sand, even just gravel. All grow plants.
I have an Archaea LED to my CFLs. All grow plants.
There are many paths to success