Hanging light hoods

bureau13

New member
OK, so I have my 72" Aqua Medic OceanLight fixture sitting in a box, and it needs to be hanging over my tank. The ceiling is one side of a vaulted ceiling, so its at a slant, and its a popcorned drywall type of material. AM includes this nice easily adjustable steel wire hanging kit that mounts the fixture at two points, near each end. The problem I'm having is that there is no beam (if that's the word) in my ceiling where I need there to be one, in order to hang the lights centered over the tank...not even close. Now, AM includes a pair of anchors or mollies or whatever, that claim to be specifically for this purpose...I just don't know if I should trust them. The last thing I need is my OceanLight crashing down on top of my tank! The fixture isn't exactly feather light, although thank god the magnetic ballasts are in a separate box!

Anyone gone ahead and hung their lights this way? Anything bad happen as a result? My only other option is to go up in the attic and put 2x4s between the two beams in exactly the spot I want to use, and screwing the mounting plate into that. If I have to I will do it, but that's a pain...and AM DID include those drywall anchors for a reason right?

jds
 
I don't have any experience with the product your using or hanging lights, but I do have experience taking shortcuts in this hobby and when I do I get screwed. My suggestion would be to go with putting the 2x4s in the attic. No reason to make this hobby that already teeters on the edge of chaos any more unstable.
 
I hung the 36" AM oceanlight from my ceiling using the hardware provided in the hanging kit. I did not hit the rafter and have had no problems. I do think about it when I wipe the light down and it is swinging around but the anchors they supplied in my light had a good gripping system on them to hold the light, and where not meant to go into a rafter...JMHO..The light has been there for over a year now, if that helps..
 
Hmmm, hadn't thought about it...it would have to be a size that contains a screw that will be the same size as provided by AM in order to use their mounting plate. Which shouldn't be that hard..

About the taking shortcuts comment...I know :( You're probably right.

jds

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7508162#post7508162 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pyro383
have you considered using butterfly anchors?
 
i used plastic wall anchors and 2 hook eye screws and used small chain and those oval clips that have the screw things on one side so I could remove the light as needed
 
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