Sliding rails for large canopy?

[weatherson]

Hey Mike,
I'll have to chime in here with some thoughts. If you go the aluminum box route, I think the barn door system is nice but way over-kill for the weight of the box. With my box completed and all ballasts, lights and miscelaneous wiring installed, it weighed no more than 75 pounds. Granted, your box will be slightly larger though.
Is there any posibility of making a box in the ceiling that the lightbox would rise into and out of your way? I know I've seen this done before with suspended ceilings. You could then do a pulley system above that would retract the light box into this. You could even go electric with a power winch (Harbor Freight had a 450 lb. unit for under $50.) Of course this all depends on the space above to ceiling and whether you have the proper supports to mount the pulley system.
I too thought of the roll up garage door tracks. This would be a simple retro fit but in looking on your web site (very nice by the way), I noticed the door on one of the two tank walls that could create a space issue. If you did go the garage door rail way, which seems to me to be a very feasable one, I would simply mount the wheels directly to the aluminum light box ends. With this system you could easily have the light box in very close proximity to the ceiling yet able to move a large horizontal distance.
My last thought would be a pivoting system where one end would be staionary on a hinge and the other could ride on a quarter circle rail. The only problem with this design is that it would require the most amount of fishroom space when moved away from the tank.
Hope this helps out and good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Joseph

 

[mhurley]

Joseph,

Thanks for chiming in. I have a swing arm system on it right now and can swing from one side about 60 degrees out of the way. It works fine but would not work for the new hood.

I have very little clearance between the tank and the dropped ceiling, so a pulley system wont work. There's some duct work directly above the tank/dropped ceiling that would prevent me from punching through that ceiling.

I think I'm going down the path you suggested with the garage door wheels mounted directly to the box.

Thanks for all your ideas and feedback.
Mike

 

[Sparkysreef]

any updates or at least pics.

I am in the process of doing the same over my 180 but I am mounting an entire light mover assembly to a track system. I have a very low ceiling and can't raise the lights for maintenance so I have to move them out of the way.