My husband rigged up a pulley system for the canopy of our 72 gallon bowfront. The canopy is made of plastic and is quite flexible, so we felt that a lifting system was needed to ensure it wouldn't break at some point while removing it.
Here's a picture of the entire setup.
With the pulley system, the canopy is easy to lift off with just one person. It probably weighs about 40 lbs with 440W VHO inside, but the size makes it more cumbersome than the weight.
The cable pulls from the left side, and ties to the wall. A wire runs from each of the four corners to the centre pulley assemply to give the lift process balance.
The centre hoist assemby is where the four corner wires meet, with a double pulley up to the ceiling.
Given the hot weather of late, you can see that we've also added a large fan to blow down onto the water surface (we found that sump fans just weren't enough).
You'll also notice that the canopy has metal rods along the front and back. We found that the canopy bent severely when trying to lift directly from the four corners, so the rods prevent that.
The main weight of the canopy is taken by an eyebolt through a 1x6 piece of oak, which was screwed into the ceiling joists. The clearance is about a foot and a half, giving ample room for cleaning and reef recontruction.
The entire assembly can also be removed if we have guests over and want the aquarium area to look less cluttered, but after a while, we don't even notice it.
The work took about two weeks, with my husband living at Home Depot figuring out the various options and fittings needed.
