Hello All...Need Advice

I just moved to a different house and have set up a 55 gallon
Freshwater Chiclid tank. I have this tank in the middle of the room
(not backed up to
a wall). That being th case, I am attempting to do this with out
having anything ugly hanging out of the tank.

I have the following fish:
(1) 3" Jack Dempsey
(1) 6" Magunese (sp)
(1) 6" Oscar

I am going to build an additional oak hood to cover the black plastic
hoods
thatcame with the fishtank. Aside from this oak hood, I only hope to
have one
wire coming out of the oak hood which will be an extension cord
goingto an out let (and covered in decorative wire loom). I want to
have all filtration contained within the oak hood.

My initial attempt at doing this was to purchase (2) Fluval 2-Plus
internal filters which I did. These seem to be working okay but it has
only been a week so not totally sure yet. The tank is clear and the
fish seem to be fine though there is a cloudy layer of film on the top
of the water which I do not ever recall having when I had a power
biowheel filter in my tank at my old house (can't have this type of
filter now because will not fit properly with my hood/scheme). I was
considering taking out one of the internal filter and replacing it
with a small/cheaper canister filter if I could find one that is small
enough to fit in my hood area (only about 6" high. Not sure if this is
a good idea though as I have only ever had biowheel power filters in
the past.

Just some of my ideas. Not to sure what to do at this point. I don't
want to invest alot of money into this project as I don't have the
money to spend right now. Thank you very much for any help that anyone
here might be able to provide to me.
JT