Using solar mounting rails for light hanging.

[Cilyjr]

Hi all,
Extruded aluminum has been a real game changer in the marine aquarium hobby, light weight, non corrosive, and strong!

Also unusually expensive for what it is.

Recently I put solar on my home. I did it myself and learned a lot about a lot. One of those things was solar mounting rails which are made of, you guessed it, extruded aluminum. And what else is really cool, a 14 foot rail costs about 20 to 40 bucks.

I would not try to build a stand for an aquarium with them but I did use it to mount my lights!

There are many brands with slightly different shapes. 1 thing they share in common, is they have a t slot on at least 2 sides some more.

I chose the iron ridge x10 rails for my project. Because my local supplier had in stock ( they are also holding my solar to the roof).

You will likely need access to a 3d printer to make an attachment for the lights. Connecting the rails a simple L bracket will work.

Mine are bolted to a floating canopy, but one could make frame with the rails if they prefer the look of exposed lights. If I were to do that I'd slice the rails at a 45 and use an L bracket in the corners.

Let me share some pictures.

 

[Turkeysammich]

I also built my own diy solar system. I did 28 panels for 9kwh, 7.6 inverter and 18kwh batteries. Unfortunately I don’t have great sun like where you live but it’s still decent.
Gotta love free energy.
Oh I used uni-strut and 2x4’s. A crap load of L brackets.

 

[Cilyjr]

I also built my own diy solar system. I did 28 panels for 9kwh, 7.6 inverter and 18kwh batteries. Unfortunately I don’t have great sun like where you live but it’s still decent.
Gotta love free energy.
Oh I used uni-strut and 2x4’s. A crap load of L brackets.

I'm about a mile away from the ocean so I do get fog most mornings until about 10 am. But yes The not having a $600 bill has been great. It's what caused me to buy a too big aquarium...lol

My system is close in size a little smaller. I have 22x 470 watt jinco panels and 2x 14k batteries.
At some point I will add a small natural gas generator to truly never be out of power. But that's down the road a little bit.
I have a hybrid inverter so all of my transferring happens automatically in a few milliseconds. We lost power for half in the evening in my neighborhood in August and I didn't notice until my neighbor texted me.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

We are a crafty bunch...

 

[lalan455]

Hi all,
Extruded aluminum has been a real game changer in the marine aquarium hobby, light weight, non corrosive, and strong!

Also unusually expensive for what it is.

Recently I put solar on my home. I did it myself and learned a lot about a lot. One of those things was solar mounting rails which are made of, you guessed it, extruded aluminum. And what else is really cool, a 14 foot rail costs about 20 to 40 bucks.

I would not try to build a stand for an aquarium with them but I did use it to mount my lights!

There are many brands with slightly different shapes. 1 thing they share in common, is they have a t slot on at least 2 sides some more.

I chose the iron ridge x10 rails for my project. Because my local supplier had in stock ( they are also holding my solar to the roof).

You will likely need access to a 3d printer to make an attachment for the lights. Connecting the rails a simple L bracket will work.

Mine are bolted to a floating canopy, but one could make frame with the rails if they prefer the look of exposed lights. If I were to do that I'd slice the rails at a 45 and use an L bracket in the corners.

View attachment 75199View attachment 75202View attachment 75200View attachment 75203

Let me share some pictures.

This is a really clever idea. Those solar rails are strong, lightweight, and way cheaper than aquarium-branded extrusions. Great tip on using T-slots and simple brackets—nice crossover from the solar world into the reef hobby.

 

[Cilyjr]

This is a really clever idea. Those solar rails are strong, lightweight, and way cheaper than aquarium-branded extrusions. Great tip on using T-slots and simple brackets—nice crossover from the solar world into the reef hobby.

I like sharing stuff like this, because there's almost always a more cost effective solution but finding them is the challenge.

 

[Coral reefer]

I like sharing stuff like this, because there's almost always a more cost effective solution but finding them is the challenge.

Do you think it would work to attach a rig made like this to the back of a stand and have it hang out over the tank rather than hanging from above? I have done that with the metal electrical conduit before and been happy with the result

 

[Cilyjr]

I'm sure it's possible. There are two slots typically in a solar mounting rail. One on the top and one on the back. If you could find a way to attach the t-bolt to whenever you are using from the back of the tank, I'm sure it would work.