My Tek Light installation

Hi All,

As mentioned elsewhere, I finally got my long awaited Tek Light fixture and bulbs. My problem was that I was not going to be able to hang them from my ceiling since it is a sloped ceiling and way too tall.

Here is what I did in order to hang my light in a nice clean contemporary way:

I wanted a decorative bracket that projected from the wall far enough for my fixture to center over my tank which currently sits about 4" off my wall. After tons of searching on the internet, i found my brackets here:

Large Perforated Shelf Support - Shelf Brackets - Shelf Supports - Supports - Doug Mockett.com

(for the record they also make a worksurface bracket that matches and has an 18" projection for those of you with monster sized tanks.)

I chose black but came very close to getting the brushed silver ones. These cost a bit more - but i chose them for the look and the fact that they were designed to be symmetrical in such a way that you can either use them to support the shelf from below or do what I did and hang the shelf on the bottom of them so the brackets act like bookends.

Other materials (all from Home Depot - cost about 55 bucks total ):

Black prefinished 36" long x 12" deep shelf - 1/2" in thickness
Assorted Bolts and wing nuts - varying lengths
Washers - both nylon and sealing washers (silver finish with black neoprene on other side.)
Wiremold "Cordmate II" cord management kit
36 piece of 1.5" X 1.5" brushed aluminum angle

I wanted to use exposed hardware with thumb-tight mechanical connections for easy removal if necessary plus the silver hardware finish complemented the finish on the Tek Light 2-point connection suspension kit. (bought off eBay) There will eventually be a black trimmed (much bigger) tank and stand - so i wanted to take that into consideration.

The silver aluminum angle was simply trimmed with a hacksaw once we had the shelf and brackets up. It is sandwiched in place between the shelf bracket and shelf. It serves as a bit of a lip in the front to conceal the edge of the shelf and once again tie into the black and brushed metal look. My father drilled all the bolt holes (everything was 1/4" for the record).

The wiremold stuff is a godsend and EASY to install, its basically peel and stick and easily cut to size with a hacksaw. I highly recommend it to any of you who want to hide some of the many cords required for all your equipment.

I couldnt be happier with how it turned out If anyone decides to do something like this - feel free to let me know.

thanks

 

Nice!

 

...a few more related pics

 

...a couple more pics then that's it

 

Very nice, well thought out and executed

 

thats pretty much exactly what i did. works out great too. awesome job!

 

nice job on the hanging mechanism!
your tank looks nice btw

 

thank you all for the nice comments

although im wayyyy happy with it, what really matters is that the corals and fish are even happier than i am

 

I think it looks great and since I can't hang anything from the ceiling where I rent this will work great when I set up my 75 this summer. Great job.