Actuated Suspended Canopy Lift

[Conor_K]

Hoping to get a some ideas on how to achieve my next upgrade. I have been really struggling with the best way to do this.

Long story short, the "floating" canopy is currently hung from the ceiling via 4 points, one in each corner. I upgraded my 120gal tank to a custom size (slightly larger and taller) 6 months ago and now the canopy makes maintenance a pain. I could just raise it, but i really want the ability to move it up and way out of my way when needed.

So I have been digging on ways to do this, most likely with linear actuators, but I am trying to get around one obstacle.
I really don't want to mess with the ceiling attachments. I have them blended in quite well and am hoping to leave them alone which is where I hope you guys can come in.

I am rebuilding the canopy completely so anything goes.
I do want to maintaining the floating aspect of this so nothing down the back.

Here is what I am working with:

Looking forward to some ideas...

Cheers,
C

 

[Conor_K]

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[Ratherbeflyen]

I've been really happy with mine.

My custom DIY wall mount hood

A thread on on this forum gave me this idea, so I made a short video of my hood and how it works. Hopefully it helps inspires someone else.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Conor_K]

Yeh, that looks handy. I have see plenty of examples of wall mounted stuff, but i have a window right behind the tank that makes that time of setup cumbersome for me.

As I continue to dig, I am thinking about a pair of worm gears and pulleys in each corner of the canopy. I just need see if i can ones small enough to hide and heavy duty enough to support the weight. .

In the end i may just need to box out the ceiling above for some linear actuators, but we'll see.

 

[Conor_K]

Bump

 

[Ratherbeflyen]

I have not seen anyone do it, but I was originally going to suspend my hood through the ceiling. In the attic I was going to mount a $50 harbor freight atv winch with wireless remote with a small battery and float charger. I was going to use a smaller cable or rope and a couple of pulleys to make hood stay level. Then you just hit the button on the remote and raise the hood as high or low as you want it.

 

[redfishbluefish]

You didn't mention weight, but how about yo-yo lifts....you could hide the yo-yo in the canopy. HERE is but one example of a "light weight" yo-yo on eBay.

 

[Conor_K]

Hey now. Those look promising.

I havent figured weight yet. I have about 11lbs in Mitras and then i am going to do 39” retrofit T5’s which will be pretty negligible I think. Then it’s just the wood.
i’m guessing maybe 30lbs max.

 

[myakuel]

hey,
I am looking to do something similar on my 220 waterbox but in pvc board. i dont think i have the skills to do it my self on such a large tank, especially if my only option is wall/ceiling mounting bc the tank is rimless. anyone know of a company that could help?
much appreciated

 

[DerekC]

Conor_K, any progress? I am thinking about doing the same for my 300G.
2 30" linear actuators and all pulley hiding in the canopy. All you see is 4 hanging wire, one coiled power cord, and one 0-10V signal wire coming down from ceiling...
PVC board lighter but it is strong enough? Do I have studs in the ceiling to hold the weigh? etc...

I kind of remember a thread showing a build using linear actuator and a few pulleys (inside the canopy) to do the trick couple years ago. Maybe it was on RC. It is hard to search when people using different terminology - hood, canopy, lift, etc.. Anyone remembers the thread?

 

[Beau_B]

I saw a post, maybe on BRS Facebook, about someone who used a TV mount that was designed to lift a flat screen up from the foot of a bed or out of a cabinet. It wasn't the cheapest bit of hardware, but something readily available and engineered has it's advantages.

 

[LDog74]

Here is what I did. You can view more on my build thread.