Lol! In that pic I suppose he was being drip acclimated. Was being fed a bit of finger to ease him through the transition.

Brett,

You're tank build is so inspiring. There is so much attention to detail. I was wondering for a while how the build was going as I always look forward to your updates. Sometimes you just wonder if it's going to work hey? I'm glad you were able to fish that wire through the wall/ceiling.

My daughter was 4.5 pounds when she was born (premature). In Sept she'll be 3 - that's crazy. She is talking, walking, counting, reading.....just amazes me. You'll look back and just say "wow" in a few years when your little one is running around!

Keep the little updates coming. I enjoy them.

Yeah my little girl is 2 years old on the 11th. I keep having more fun the older she gets so I'm definitely looking forward to growing my son out from a small frag as well =) Thanks for the nice comments. Waiting for these parts is killing me. Not having access to the tank has really bothered me since the day I hung the light so I'm really eager to fix that and MOVE ON.

Received the actuator in the mail today. I just lifted a 24-can box of diet pepsi 24" into the air with nothing but a 9V battery!

Is this update worthy? Lol...maybe not but COME ON!

OK,where did you get the actuator from???? I wana play with something too

http://www.firgelliauto.com/

I was pleased to discover they were Canadian. But my freakin' order shipped from the US so I was dinged at the door today for $40.

You know we need to see pictures....detailed pictures. You've given me the idea that I need to handle my future lighting so now I gotta see how an expert like yourself did it.:biggrin:

Still waiting for my power supply and grooved bearings. I'll definitely post step-by-step pics detailing how I did it...if it works!

actuated light winch
 

I've already built and tested a very rough prototype. I used it to lift a length of pvc pipe to the joists in my basement. I wanted to ensure that my bearing layout would lift the object evenly on both ends and work out any kinks. That first demo had one major problem and that was the pivoting end of the actuator shaft. The shaft itself rotates and the rotating bracket on its end can simply slide and counter the shaft's rotation. The issue was that the bracket was turning a lot too...especially when retracting the actuator. If this happened with my light on wires it could be disastrous!

My final build has a 3-sided channel for the bracket to slide within. This has corrected the issue entirely.

Parts:

- 3/4" maple, screws and glue
- actuator
- 3 grooved bearings
- various brackets, nuts and bolts.

Here is the unit. All that need to be done to it is drill a hole to feed my 12VDC power into it from the ceiling. When I'm done testing it on the ceiling I'll mount my floating cover. It will be a 60 x 18 maple panel...large enough that the ends can be open but from the floor you cannot see the guts above it.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift1.jpg

This shows where the two wires will connect. The blue wire runs on 2 bearings and the red on one. Two were needed for the blue wire to turn a pushing movement into a pull. So basically when the actuator extends 24" the light goes up 24". When it retracts the light will rest where it currently does...a few inches from the water's surface.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift1b.jpg

View of the actuator shaft and bracket.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift2.jpg

Close-up of one bearing/bracket.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift3.jpg

Just a neat shot down it's length.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift4.jpg

You can see the 3-position toggle switch on the back of the stand. It's all wired and ready to go. Thanks for lookin'!

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift5.jpg

My favourite part of this update was the computer. Glad to see you're an Apple guy :)