Ballast

So i did a move on saturday and I got some sweet bonuses for helping. One of the many things I got is a ballast with the lights. The only thing is, it is designed to be hung on a low ceiling so I don't have anything to attach it to to hold it over the tank I have. It has 2 t12s and a metal halide. The t12s are 36", and the Halide is 175w-10,000k. It just needs a bit of cleaning but how to I get it to hang on top of my tank? Another concern is the big box that I'm supposed to plug in the chords to practically burned a hole in the floor of the house I got it from. How do I make sure it stays cool enough not to set my place on fire?

As of hanging you could either get more cable so it can reach your ceiling or make a make shift wood canopy. Over at live rock n reef he used a wall shelf to hang LEDs over the frag system. The cleanest look I think would be to get more cable to hang it all the way, but with the shelf idea you would have more storage lol
As for the ballast over heating I am not to sure. Maybe look into replacing it with one that doesnt over heat that bad. I have never had a ballast that gets that hot so I dont know what to do about it sorry.

From the description that box sounds like its the metal halides ballast. They are usually in a separate box like that. If its not then I have no idea what Im saying.

I mostly see them on a wooden board but if you were worried about it starting a fire like that you could hang it or get some metal grate shelf to put it on.
They shouldnt be so hot that they can start fires though