Help with 8020 light rail

[aherre07]

Well I am planning on hanging some new to me Orphek Atlantiks over my Tank. The tank is 72x30x24 tall Eurobraced and has 2 braces going across the middle of the tank as well. I plan on going with 4 Orpheks instead of 3 to help with shadowing in the center of the tank. The plan is to create a light rail using 8020 slotted aluminum but have never ever used this material and have no clue on what I would need to order as far as hardware is concerned.

The layout of the lights as currently planned is as follows:

Starting at one end of the 72" side of the tank 6" space, Light, 7" space, Light, 8" space, Light, 7" space, Light, 6" space.

Taking into account that each light is 9.5" wide (approximately) that will give me the most suitable layout for even distribution along the length of the tank. I plan to include (not sure if necessary) an 2x24" OR3 Blue plus bars on the outer 2 spaces and 1x24" OR3 UV Plus bar in the center space. Possible these would be used for added pop or night time viewing as I know they are not needed for PAR purposes. Thoughts on this idea??

Back to the light rail: My question is, is it possible to use 2 60" lengths of aluminum along the long edge only and hang the lights from these 2 pieces in a train track type orientation? Or would it be necessary to add the 2 end pieces as to complete the rectangular frame? If so what hardware would this require to attach the aluminum at the corners?

Would the thumb screws on the Orpheks work as T-nuts and slide into the slotted aluminum or would I need to buy certain hardware to attach the lights to the Light rail once completed?

 

[aherre07]

 

[Gtinnel]

I hung my lights similar to how I think you are describing it. I have two 72" rails with them being spaced out to where they match up to the spacing on the mounting screws of my lights. I didn't put any cross bars on the outside edges of my long rails but I did put 6 of them spaced out along the length of the long rails and honestly I probably didn't need six. One difference for my lights is that the two long rails are only a few inches apart to match up to the screws in my lights.
Here is a pic I just took of my rail (sorry its a pretty bad pic)

Here is my lights hanging from the rails

Here are the brackets I used to attach the cross pieces to the long rails.

 

[aherre07]

That's exactly what I was planning on. For the extra 20.00 of aluminum I'm thinking I may just go ahead and add the 2 end rails on the short end of the light mount. My plan is to make the rail the width of the mounting screws as well.

I appreciate the feedback on the hardware to complete the rail.

Anyone have feedback on the thumbscrews on the orphek lights? Will they slide in the t slot or would I need to replace with some other hardware??

 

[JGT]

I added the 2 end pieces to give the overall frame more stability. My frame is 8’ long. I didn’t use any cross members. This allowed me to slide the lights to exactly where I wanted them. I used 2 8020 angle brackets to secure the end pieces. I have Radion lights and used 2” m5 screws that screwed into the Radions. The heads of the screws sit inside the T slot.

 

[Gtinnel]

Also please not that the brackets I used are for the sized rail I used which was 10 series. I can't answer about the tumb screws on the orpheks but I did find another thread where someone said they slid right into the t slot.

Post #4 in this thread.

Or90 + Atlantik V4G2 hanging solutions?

I'm using the supplied hanging kit for my light. I was wondering if there's an easy way to add an OR90 light bar or two to my setup without drilling any more holes in the ceiling?

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