Light rail...

[Erik]

Since I have my ATI light fixture on order and with the expressed concern from others with in-wall tanks that don't have front access, I decided to try and come up with a solution that would allow me as much access to the other 3 sides of the tank as possible. This may mean having the ability to completely move the light fixture out of the way when I'm doing maintenance on the tank. I know I've seen some people with lights on rails and/or on an automated lift system. Jason at the Pet Advantage suggested to pick up a power-lift from cabella's.

Cabellas Cable Hoist.

This is an option, but it has its challenges. One, I'd have to rig a cable system so that the hoist pulls each end up in concert. Second, the cable system used to hoist each end would have to be VERY compact, as there is limited clearance between the top of the tank and ceiling. With the light hanging, I'm not sure I could fabricate a pulley system that would be compact enough to keep the light from hanging an inch or two from the water. So, I may be scratching that idea...

I'd be more inclined to slide the fixture, than lift it. I suppose I could fab up something using cabinet slides from a woodworker's hardware site. Something like this:

Under Mount Pantry Slides

But mount it upside down, so it's mounted to the ceiling and the light cables are mounted to a board that attaches to the slide. The one I linked is a 24" pantry slide capable of holding 130 pounds. I figure if I mount the brackets to the middle of the tank where the light will be, this will get the light off the tank completely, as the tank is only 24". At $55 for the slide, it may be the way to go.

What do you guys think?

[joel1234567]

If it slides off the rear of the tank, how would you still access the tank from the rear? It seems like that might limit access even more, unless I am misunderstanding. Plus if you slide the light off the tank, instead of suspending it over the tank, you lose the light in the tank when you're working.

What about just a chain that attaches to each end with a hook at the ceiling? You could just lift the chain up several notches if you need to get into the tank. Or, maybe put a pulley at each end instead of a hook, and hand-lift on the cable thru the pulleys instead of using the power-lift.

If you do want it powered, you might be able to find a linear actuator on ebay that would work for cheaper than the cabela's lift, and with a smaller footprint.

[The Saltwater Kid]

Here's a thought...how about devising some sort of bar (maybe wood or metal) that spans the length of the light fixture, drill two hole on each end and attach the light fixture to each end by a chain (or similar), drill a hole in the center of the bar and than attach a chain from that hole to the hoist, this way when you press the button the hoist will raise and lower the entire fixture evenly. Might not work but in theory it sounds good .

[reefkeeper]

The slide is cool, but you might want to consider longer slides so you access the tank, but like Joel said, you will lose the light to see with and coming from experience, it makes it hard to see what your doing inside the tank. If you have enough distance above the tank, for the light to go up high enough that you can get under it, you could easily and rig a pulley system on each end of the light and have the cables either counter weighted below the tank with pulleys above or 90 deg. and across the ceing joists with a way of putting stops in it to hold the light up. Either way would be fairly simple and fairly inexpensive. If money is no object then go with the winch and mount it to the ceiling with pulleys, but that will just complicate things, on the other hand, it would give you the wow factor to have something like that when your friends come over.

[Erik]

Thanks for the comments guys!
The light over the tank is a valid one. Sliding the light to the rear of the tank would certainly make the tank dark. I'm not too worried about it hindering the back of the tank, because I could work on the back of the tank with the light in place. The dimensions of the light are: 58.5" x 13.4" x 2.1" (L x W x H). 13.4" will give me plenty of room in a 24" wide tank to access what I'd need to access in the rear of the tank. I'm more concerned with the light being in the way when I need to access the front of it. I do have some clearance issues from the top of the tank to the ceiling. I haven't actually measured the distance yet. I'll need to do this in order to get an accurate depiction of where I'm at, clearance-wise. The nice thing about T-5's is that you can get them pretty close to the water (~4") so that should leave a fair bit of space between the top of the light and the bottom of the ceiling to raise the fixture. However, if the "rigging" that is used with the hoist needs to hang from the ceiling rafters, plus the cable that attaches to the board that mounts the light is not extremely compact, it's going to severely limit the travel of the fixture. That's my main concern.

However, if I go with a linear actuator, I may be able to rig my own board and run cables from the board I create. I believe there will need to be a few inches between the light and the board because the fans are mounted on the TOP of the light fixture and are essential to maintaining the bulbs life expectancy. There are 8 - 12" linear actuators on E-bay that would be close enough to the travel I'd need to make it a little easier to do things like clean the glass and move frags around. I don't think I'd want to re-aquascape a tank with the light only being 12-14" off the water.

Regardless, I still need to get the light. It is STILL on backorder from Reefgeek. Ugghhhh.

[Erik]

This is what I'm working with.
Light is about 13" from the water here. The bottom of the light is 12" from the ceiling. Water level is about 25" from the ceiling. It's lifted higher for the greater spread over the 6' tank. I'm currently using a 4' light over a 6' tank.

View from the back:

View from the side:


Looks like at the least, i'll have to move the light socket and the junction box that runs the recessed lighting in the living room. So as you can see, a traditional pulley system would be tight up to the ceiling. If I don't go with the slides, I think a horizontally mounted linear actuator may be compact enough. I was also thinking of finding a scrap power window module with a full up/full down button. I could wire it to a switch and simply just have the window motor crank the light up/down.

[joel1234567]

Are you going to do anything that adjusts the light position based on time of day? Or is the movement solely for maintenance?

[Erik]

Are you going to do anything that adjusts the light position based on time of day? Or is the movement solely for maintenance?

Just for maintenance.