Help needed with track suggestions for lighting

[Gundy]

I am planning a 265 gallon peninsula style reef tank. Because our family room has vaulted ceiling‘s, hanging the lights over the aquarium and having them look good is going to be a challenge. The look I’m going for is to suspend the lights over the tank with no closed in canopy Sitting on top of the tank.

My thought was trying to place a track of some sort in the wall that would be sturdy enough to cantilever the lights over the aquarium without having to have a second brace on the other side of the aquarium. This way I could slide the lights up and down as needed for proper lighting and maintenance.

I’m hoping some of you have some knowledge about different track systems and you have seen or done something similar on your aquarium. Do you have any suggestions on some kind of a track that I could flush mount to the wall and have some sort of locking mechanism so that the light bar will stay in place where I put it. I think the real challenge is the weight that would be created by the cantilever caused by the lights, especially if I placed a small frame around them to hide them. So whatever track it is, it’s going to have to be big and beefy. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[shwareefer]

How about a welded "L" frame not mounted to the wall but built into the the stand at the wall end to make it legit strong. This peninsula at reefbuilders gave me the idea. Their pic:

 

[Gundy]

I have given up on trying to have The light bar move up and down. And your suggestion of a welded bar is probably the best way to go. I just have to figure out how thick the metal bar will have to be to hold the weight of the lights and wood trimmed canopy to hide the lights.

 

[Isopod80]

I have given up on trying to have The light bar move up and down. And your suggestion of a welded bar is probably the best way to go. I just have to figure out how thick the metal bar will have to be to hold the weight of the lights and wood trimmed canopy to hide the lights.

If the main bar was to fit snugly into a tubular bar you could adjust height via several adjustable tightening methods. An adjustable bushing on the bar itself, wider than the tube section, that could be loosened and slid up and down then retightened, for example. It would be more stable this way if the bar was "U" shaped with tubular sections and bushings on both sides.

 

[shwareefer]

I'm with Isopod80, this can still be an adjustable system.

Anyway, you haven't mentioned what lights you are using or the dimensions of the tank or what you intend to keep. If you haven't decided on lights you might consider Kessil pendants with 35° reflectors that could possibly be ceiling mounted with a clean look. I'm sure there was a BRS YouTube video with Kessils mounted 4ft over the tank with the narrow reflector and good results but that video is eluding me (or was removed) or I would link it...