Suggestions for a light rack?

[rovster]

The wheels in my head are always turning and I'm flirting with the idea of expanding my light over my tank with either T5 or MH. There are currently 3 Radions hung over it with the Ecotech hanging kit and I want to keep it looking clean.

The 80/20 stuff is nice but kind of bulky. I thought of wood and building a floating canopy but that sounds way too heavy and bulky for what I want to do. My uncle knows how to weld with steel but again heavy and corrosion factor?

I thought about a custom job with welded aluminum but scared about the price tag on that, LOL! Would love to hear some feedback and suggestions. TIA!!:wave:

 

[julie180]

Metal bookshelf tracks. I just made one for my kessils and it turned out great. Light weight and about 10 bucks.

 

[slief]

EZ Tube aluminum extrusions. That's how I built my light rack.
Light weight and easy to assemble. You just have to figure out how you want your design. They have extrusions with little lips that make a great place to drop your fixtures or pendents into. My light rack is very large at 94" x 44" and it's on an electric winch/pulley system to raise and lower it.. It needed to be sturdy but also light weight so as not to add a lot more weight to an already heavy pile of lights and ballasts.

They snap together using their little interconnect components.

It provides a very sturdy rack to mount almost any light. These are my original LED's mounted to the rack.

And the same rack after a recent upgrade to Kessils.

 

[rovster]

Heck yeah!! This is exactly what I was hoping for. Thank you so much!!

EZ Tube aluminum extrusions. That's how I built my light rack.
Light weight and easy to assemble. You just have to figure out how you want your design. They have extrusions with little lips that make a great place to drop your fixtures or pendents into. My light rack is very large at 94" x 44" and it's on an electric winch/pulley system to raise and lower it.. It needed to be sturdy but also light weight so as not to add a lot more weight to an already heavy pile of lights and ballasts.

They snap together using their little interconnect components.

It provides a very sturdy rack to mount almost any light. These are my original LED's mounted to the rack.

And the same rack after a recent upgrade to Kessils.

 

[woodnaquanut]

I made mine out of 80/20. Black anodized. No need to weld. You can use the channels to hide the wire.

 

[flounderfish]

That looks really lightweight for its size.
I too need to figure out something for my new tank build.
Thanks for the idea

 

[d2mini]

Similar to Slief's rack, Esto is another option I've been looking at.
http://www.estoconnectors.com/tubing/detail/pn-111141

 

[slief]

That looks really lightweight for its size.
I too need to figure out something for my new tank build.
Thanks for the idea

It is very lightweight indeed. The entire frame probably weighed are 10 pounds. I'm going off memory though because it's been a few years since I handled it last.

Similar to Slief's rack, Esto is another option I've been looking at.
http://www.estoconnectors.com/tubing/detail/pn-111141

Their 1" tubing options look identical to the EZ Tube stuff. Their connectors are similar but appear to be slightly different not that the connectors make much difference. They are slightly more expensive than EZ Tube on the 1" stuff but your talking pennies if their shipping doesn't reduce the cost. Unlike EZ Tube, they offer thicker extrusions and black extrusions which is pretty cool.

Good find! :beer:

 

[mfinn]

Made my light rack for my Radions out of ez tube also.
Very easy to work with.

 

[kgk]

I built mine out of 80/20, similar idea.

http://www.amazon.com/s?me=A1H481IPHNMK5K

 

[shaginwagon13]

To sort of revive this thread, has anyone else used EZ Tube, ESTO Tubing for their light rack?

I am planning to build mine to for my 60 x 36 x 36 tank for my halides and LED fixtures and was looking for anyone else who had done this, and who had some pictures of their fixtures.

Thanks!

https://eztube.com/product-category/tubes/aluminum-extrusions/

http://www.estoconnectors.com/

 

[mfinn]

To sort of revive this thread, has anyone else used EZ Tube, ESTO Tubing for their light rack?

I am planning to build mine to for my 60 x 36 x 36 tank for my halides and LED fixtures and was looking for anyone else who had done this, and who had some pictures of their fixtures.

Thanks!

https://eztube.com/product-category/tubes/aluminum-extrusions/

http://www.estoconnectors.com/

I made a light rack for my Radions that sat on the euro braced tank top of my 240.
I used the plain square tube.