Pulley system for hood

stimpy4242

stimpy4242

Member
So after spending three hours today rescuing my new perc from the overflow...it was horrible. I had to undo the dorso standpipe and create a fast toilet flush to suck him down to the sump where he decided he would hide between the baffles. Then it was a matter of fishing for him. Regardless, the overflow part was the biggest pain in the butt...so:
I have decided to make a pulley system to lift my hood up with the solaris light which is mounted inside as high as it will go to give me access to the top of the tank. I am sure this will come in handy for other things as well. Anyone done this before? If so post pictures so I can see.
I am simply think of a block and tackle pulley system that I can pull one wire and life the entire hood and then lock it off. I attached a picture of my set up.
 
wattsupdoc

wattsupdoc

Active Member
I remember seeing a thread where someone had done a worm gear drive to lift their caonpy, on a remote control even. Let me see if I can find it.
 
stimpy4242

stimpy4242

Member
Thanks looks good to me...i mean I have remote controlled plugs...thats how i turn my water pumps on when I am upstairs and need to start refills...i can buy a remote plug for like 30 bucks.
 
spiked09

spiked09

Member
Update on hood lift....
I am still using the lift and it continues to works great.
However I am no longer using the remote.
It is a Pile O' Shite! It was very finicky and would sometimes keep going after pressing stop repeatedly. I actually killed my first actuator due to this, that and the fact that my wires were not long enough to reach all the way to the top. The fricken lift would not respond one day and it kept going up and up, nearly ripping all the wires out of my light fixture. Not to mention how close I came to having a heart attack picturing my light cords ripping out of the fixture and falling on me or into the tank as I was scrambling to kill the power.
So, I now have a toggle switch to select UP or DWN and a momentary push button to activate the lift. It is much safer and requires the operator to hold the button down, the instant your finger is removed all power is interrupted.
Other than that everything works good and it makes working on the tank much, much easier
 
spiked09

spiked09

Member
Originally Posted by stimpy4242
http:///forum/post/2462460
Thanks looks good to me...i mean I have remote controlled plugs...thats how i turn my water pumps on when I am upstairs and need to start refills...i can buy a remote plug for like 30 bucks.
I am not sure how those work but in order for the lift to go back down the polarity must be reversed, so positive becomes negative & negative becomes positive.
I have almost no clue about wiring and electrical systems so I am sure there are a thousand different ways of wiring this type of setup to suite your specific needs. For me I found the remote cool and handy but that is about it. It was more of a novelty item or conversation starter. Oh! and easy to loose. And I am one of those people that has place for everything and everything bla, bla, bla…
99.9% of time I used the remote I was standing right beside the tank anyways.
I have moved since building the original lift and have also installed different lights. They’re metal halides and the ballast were built into the fixture, they aren't anymore though.
I highly recommend using remote ballast if your lights require ballast.
Unfortunately when I rewired the ballasts I did not leave myself enough slack in the wires for my canopy to go all the way to the top (Duh!). So there is a defiantly room for disaster should the unit stick on or if I am not paying attention because with a remote I don't have to.
That is why I have opted to use a momentary switch. The operator must hold the button down the entire time. Mine isn't hidden yet but it will soon and it will be just as cool as a remote. You still won't see anything. :)
Of course my plan is to rewire the unit again leaving more then enough slack this time around. I may also look to include electronic emergency kill switches. These could be incorporated into the support structure using a roller on the end of a swing arm. When the canopy moves past a certain point the roller is contacted and moves the swing arm up or down causing all power to be interrupted.
That might be over-kill though, the main thing is making sure that your wires reach all the way to the top and that the canopy won't contact your ceiling when fully extended, then you are good to go.
 
rookiefish

rookiefish

Member
man i would love to have something like that for my fianal tank how did you do it and where can i find the stuff to do it with? thanks
 
spiked09

spiked09

Member
The main part is a linear actuator, it does the lifting. I got mine here...
http://www.firgelliauto.com/
I made instructions for another reefer a while ago. Here you go..
Hmm, the instructions get shrunk when I attach them, so far that you can't read anything anymore. Shoot me your e-mail and I will send it to you that way if you want.
PS. I made this from scratch and on the fly so it's not an easy thing to tell some one how to do. It was built specifically for my situation and type of stand I was dealing with. It was also built with tank full of water and only 6" away from the wall. That being said I am sure there are a million different ways to make this work. Mine is just how I ended up doing it.
If you need any help with your design or following my feeble attempt at instructions just let me know.
 
rookiefish

rookiefish

Member
thats cool speedy19992003at the yahoo.com!! im ready to start on my stand and would like to build a bad @$$ canopy!!! thanks for the info!!!
 
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