Hanging Lights

[brentling]

I have 2 36" T5HO fixtures for my 125. This is a great thing, except that my tank has a 3 piece top. Both lights sit on the center top and look very bad.



I have intended all along to hang them from the ceiling. In the past, I used nylon rope/cord w/ pulleys and a cleat bolted onto the side of the stand so as to have adjustable height. I used shop lights with built-in provisions for chains, hooks, etc. This worked extremely well and was very cheap. In fact, I still have all of the hardware. This also was done in my younger days in apartments and places where appearance was not an issue.

Now this aquarium is in my living room of my nice new-ish house and has to look great. The T5s do not have provisions for any kind of hanger. I have seen setups with certain (very expensive) lights that use a steel cable and a special bolt assembly that looks great, but am having trouble finding just the cable assembly without the lights.



If I could make it look just like the picture above, I would be very happy!

Does anyone have any suggestions? I do not want to use eye bolts w/ chain and plain ceiling hooks. I would like to use steel cable, but have discovered that the clamps for the cable require a crimping tool that costs $40! Any help would be... ummm... helpful!

 

[Blueiz]

I suggest making a canopy to hide them..

Honestly, they look fine to me the way they are.

 

[Sploke]

you can get small U-bolts to clamp steel cable rather than crimping them. Its not as clean, but if you're careful, it can be pretty comparable.

Actually what I think I would do is use coated steel cable, then get some heat-shrink tubing to cover up the cable clamp and tag end of the cable, that would look pretty clean I think.

 

[brentling]

you can get small U-bolts to clamp steel cable rather than crimping them. Its not as clean, but if you're careful, it can be pretty comparable.

Actually what I think I would do is use coated steel cable, then get some heat-shrink tubing to cover up the cable clamp and tag end of the cable, that would look pretty clean I think.

I have seen these bolt clamp thingies. I like your idea of the coated cable and have considered it. What I am not at all sure about is actually attaching the cables to the light. I like the way the picture above does it, but haven't found a way to do it that doesn't require a certain specific light.

 

[Sploke]

If you take apart the housing, I'm sure you could drill 2 holes in each one to accept a small eye bolt you could loop the cable through. Or, better yet, run the cable through the hole in the housing, and put the clamp on the inside so all you see is the cable running into the housing, no hardware at all on the outside.

Or, you could get wire rope threaded stud fittings to make it look fancy like in the picture you posted, but it would be more expensive that way.

 

[OldMan47]

Another way to use a cable clamp is to ignore the label on it. If you took the bent bolt part and drilled 2 holes in the top of the light, you could push the bent bolt through the light fixture and put the nuts and washers on from the back side of the sheet metal. The end result would be like a half circle of metal, the u shaped bolt, above the light fixture that you could use as the anchor point on the lamp. Then all you would need is the cable to be able to attach to whatever fixture you have. You would not need a particular fixture. If I went that way I would use something like loctite to make sure the nuts wouldn't back off over time.
So much for getting an anchor point to use with cable on any lamp. You still need to decide what cable to use for mounting and how to clamp it at the right length.