Does anyone here have a manual canopy lift?

[Smite]

I'm finishing up the stand and plumbing on my 48x24x15 peninsula. I love the rimless look but not the light spillage. I'd like to try and get the best of both worlds with a floating canopy which got me looking into actuators and lifts. For me an actuator seems like one more piece of equipment to fail and need to leave accessible. I'm looking around 80/20 inc site but not getting very far so I'm looking for some ideas and inspiration.

If you have a canopy lift, electric or manual I'd love to see it.

Thanks,

Matt

 

[Doctorgori]

tv mount won’t work?

 

[vanpire]

tv mount won’t work?

This is creative thinking. Never thought about that. Maybe I will apply this idea myself.

 

[Smite]

tv mount won’t work?

So this is 2 television mounts? Can I see the backside?

 

[Doctorgori]

the bottom pic is a floating rig
the top is another tank, it has the 2 TV mounts. They are screwed into the back using lag bolts. I will have to post tomorrow as the lights are out
Revtree just did a thread on TV mounts

 

[rgulrich]

Here's my 80/20 variation on a cantilever theme for a light rack. Please excuse the "under construction" clutter...

In the initial stages I was going to use an electric winch and a series of pulleys to raise and lower the light rack. After fitting it and working out the pulley locations, I began to think about replacing it with a linear actuator. Then I decided to eliminate the pulley system altogether (eliminate more points of complication or failure) and went strictly to a couple linear actuators.

Everything attached, wiring wasn't tidied up yet...

I should have the "final" parts in over the next few weeks and have things "tidied up nicely" by then.
I've learned a lot in the process, and have a few things I'd do differently to get "even better" results, but overall I'm extremely pleased with the result. I'm now able easily access the reef from 360' (it's a walk-around reef, so you can see from all sides of the aquarium). I can raise the light rack out of the way when I need access - such as when I had to catch and remove my One-Spot Foxface this past week. I have pretty much infinite height adjustment for PAR and spread, and use that in conjunction with the light controls to set the PAR levels and coverage for the reef to the best compromise.

Hope this helps with your research.

Cheers,
Ray

 

[9975]

I'm lazy and went with rails, bearings and cylinder. Off the top of my head it was < $350. This was the first trial...some tweaking and it's good to go with canopy added

 

[Paul B]

I don't have a picture but the front "lid" that hides my lights is very heavy. I just built a counterweight system. I have pulleys over the tank on the ceiling and another set of pulleys on the back wall.

Weights keep the lid wherever I put it. Very cheap and simple.

 

[Smite]

I'm lazy and went with rails, bearings and cylinder. Off the top of my head it was < $350. This was the first trial...some tweaking and it's good to go with canopy added

Dang you're not messing around man! That's awesome!

 

[9975]

Well my wife said that I couldnt hang the canopy off of the ceiling and the tank was already in place so this is the best I could come up with