He's gorgeous, congrats both of you! Have they needed to put him under light therapy at all?

No we dealt with jaundice with our daughter and we'd gladly have gone that route this time. He had fluid in his lungs and he's had issues adapting to breathing outside the womb. The term Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension was mentioned in the beginning but they weren't sure 100%. All I know is he did really well today breathing entirely on his own!

That's great news! I hope he's home with you soon!

He's coming home in 12 hours!

Maybe I'll take a pic of him in the tank so this is a little more relevant?

you must be excited! congratulations!

maybe when he's older, you can hook up a hamster ball to an oxygen tank, and let him go scuba diving in the tank.:lol:

Wow, this is excellent news! This is a tank journal after all, and since it's your tank, I think you should be allowed to journal all you want :biggrin: I agree that a FTS with child is in order though :lol:

How's little Bryce doing?

Someone dug my thread up on RC so I thought I'd waste some bandwidth here as well.

Only change is I plumbed the fresh water tank and mix tank into the cabinet. There are 3 valves. The 3 divert water into the display, back into the mix tank for mixing or direct to basement drain for rinsing the tank out.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/33s.jpg

Next on my list is installing a powered lift for the light. It will involve a linear actuator mounted to the ceiling and a few grooved bearings. Already I find it impossible to access the tank so it needs addressing now. I hope to have the light lift parts in a month or so.

And Bryce is doing awesome thanks for asking!

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

Testing my patience
 

Tonight I finally attempted what I feared might be impossible. I had originally planned to drill a hole in the wall behind the tank, right against the ceiling and drop my wire down into the wall. Then I'd pick it up with a magnet on the office/water change cabinet side somewhere and drill into the wall to fish it out. Then just run it into the back of the cabinet where my outlets are.

Then I planned for a way to have the wire be totally hidden on the tank side (emerge right from the ceiling into the actuator) and on the cabinet side (enter into the cabinet from the basement just like my drain pipe).

Here are the pics!

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wire1.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wire2.jpg

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/wire3.jpg

To do this I followed these steps:

- drilled hole where actuator assembly will mount to ceiling
- loosened and pushed aside the heating duct in upstairs washroom which straddles the wall between the tank and the cabinet
- ran string with weight on its end down into the basement from the bathroom through the studs where another vent pipe travels.
- ran another string from cabinet into basement through same cold air return hole that my water drain goes through
- tied those strings together in the basement (above drop ceiling in basement bathroom)
- ran wire through ceiling hole and got really lucky and was able to reach it from the bathroom heating duct hole
- tied wire to string and voila!

Anyways it's a huge relief. Building the lift mechanism *should* be the easy part now!

I've ordered all the parts I'll need. For anyone interested the total cost of the lift is around $300.

- 24" stroke linear actuator with brackets. rated for 150lbs
- 12vdc 2A power adapter
- 3 position toggle switch
- 3 u-groove bearings

The actuator has built in limits so i'll be able to flip the toggle up, light moves up 2 feet and stops on it's own. When I'm done in the tank it will lower all the way down and stop as well with a flip of the switch down. I can of course place the light anywhere inbetween which will be nice for acclimating new corals.

don't forget to properly acclimate your new addition when you bring him home. :biggrin:

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 :)

This is very cool, in spite of the fact that you're an apple guy:lol:

How did you calculate how long the blue wire needed to be compared to the red? Can you take a couple of other pictures of how the actuator is attached to your maple base?

Thanks

The prototype proved the fact that the lengths don't seemingly matter. I think maybe because the bearings are the same size and they don't do any funky doubling up. From what I saw my pvc test rig went up evenly. Even if my light ends up going at a slight angle (or angel), It won't be a big deal assuming it's very slight.

crash and burn
 

So tonight was a bit frustrating. The good news is I got the lift mounted on my ceiling. I don't trust the 5/8" enough to stand on it so this was a really tough task leaning out over the tank. In the end a step-stool, box of pampers and a bunch of children's books came to the rescue to hold the assembly in place! Props to Sfiligoi for making one hell of a sturdy light. I'm sure I could stand on the thing. It has ZERO flex.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift6.jpg

Now for the bad news. The bracket on the end of the screw/shaft still seems to do what it wants especially under load where the forces are quite high. The fixture I'm guessing is 60lbs or so with the glass shields so I'll have to adjust my guide for the bracket to allow it to orient like it does under weight and that's it. I need to ensure the bracket always does exactly the same thing in both directions. If it doesn't and something catches after my cover is installed it will rip the entire thing to shreds. 150 lbs of force it's capable of.

The bigger letdown was the fact that the angle brackets I have the bearings mounted to bent under load. The bearing on the far left is mounted closer to the wood and it bent far less. One of the bearings for the other wire bent a lot. I was foolishly thinking these brackets were ok because the forces are downward only and they felt solid in that respect. Of course the forces on them are horizontal as well! So I need to swap these with wide brackets that allow zero movement in the horizontal axis.

Slightly bent:

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift8.jpg

Really bent.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift7.jpg

On a positive note these issues can be easily fixed. The side with the slightly bent bracket lifted up about 4 inches before I chickened out. It was an incredibly smooth motion! The other end didn't lift at all though.

I'll update with a video tomorrow night when I have new brackets installed...

awww yeah
 

Success!

Movie 1:

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift_up.html

Movie 2:

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift_down.html

Here is a shot of the piece of aluminum i bent with great difficulty. It keeps the bracket on the actuator from spining and is also nice and rounded so it doesn't tear into my wood. There is a long piece of aluminum on top of the wooden guide base to allow even smoother sliding. I need to tweak the bends in the 'shoe' however because it's a touch too bulky and the actuator is maybe a few millimeters from fully retracting. This means the built-in limit switch currently doesn't work and the thing grinds to a halt. The limit switch on the fully extended side won't ever be used. Turns out my ceiling clearance is JUST shy of 24" so i'll have to stop the lift myself when it's high enough.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift10.jpg

Here are the beefier mounts for the bearings. ZERO sag/bend after I drilled additional screw holes right where the bracket bends 90 degrees. Wasn't fun since all i had was a nail to pound and a standard wood drill bit lol.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/build/lift11.jpg

I'm letting the lift hang suspended 1 inch above the 2x4s to ensure nothing sags over the next day. Will also run it plenty with the guts exposed. When I'm satisifed I'll attach the decorative bottom.

Wow Brett, that is soooo cool....great job. So when do you start marketing your lifts? ...I could use one:wink:

Brett,

That is pretty neat. Props to you. Just wondering why it's so much louder going up, then coming down. Or is it just the placement of the video camera that makes it appear this way?

The actuator works it's metal butt off going up. Going down you have the 60+ lbs of the light helping you out. Woke up today and it's still hanging lol.

The metal shoe was seriously my last-ditch effort. All other options somehow stuck and risked tearing my ceiling apart. This is the LAST one I'm building haha!

Wow, this looks and works great. Your build really leaves nothing out!!

Mark I forgot more detailed pics for you but that second last one shows how I just used a pair of brackets to pin the actuator in. Long bolts with some wooden spacers make it super tight. There is a bracket with a bolt that fits into the back of the actuator to keep it from sliding under force...

That light fixture lift you built is awesome. Sure answers the question of the third hand needed to raise or lower a fixture suspended by cables. Top shelf job as always.

Excellent, thanks for the info!

Nice work my friend.

that is freaking retarded , but i love it man.:smile:

I came up with new units of measurement tonight!

When shimming the 3/4" decorative box up into place I was adjusting by book increments. Larger adjustments called for an 'm.c. escher hardcover' up for example...and to fine tune I began increasing by several 'dr suess hardcovers' before finishing with a couple carefully placed 'children's softcovers'.

I haven't got a metric conversion table prepared I'm sorry. The moral of the story is buy your kids books =)

So after measuring about 50 times I carefully cut two holes and drilled pilot holes for the mounting screws. I was terrified because the box is 3/4" maple, heavy and my margin for error is small. Had to hit the 3/4" maple mounts dead center and avoid any other areas since wires are moving within. Fitting the wires back into place with the box mere inches from it's final resting spot was brutal. It essentially took me over 3 hours to prep and hoist it into place before securing it.

It's 95% done. Just need to fill the screw holes with filler and touch-up. In the future any maintenance on the light/bulbs will need to be done suspended or I will have to attach temporary weights to keep the wires inside on their bearings. Be a NIGHTMARE to remove the box and do this all again!

You can see in the pics that I removed the wooden training wheels. 100% committed now although I quite literally cringe when operating it. I'll learn to trust it with time lol.

Up:

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

Down:

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

OMG, that's brilliant! I didn't think it would look quite that clean when it was finished... beautiful work!

Excellent work Brett. Looks very good. Now thats slick.

That will be one incredible tank!

:shocked!: Friggen sweet Brett:hail: (this coming from a finishing carpenter.)

If this is my wife...I'm onto you. Stop spying on me at Canreef =)

Thanks for the nice comments guys.

Took me a second to remember what you meant by training wheels but yeah OK now I see - haha, yep, committed now! :) Neat idea and looks great!

I wonder if you're gonna have to put something over that switch though, like a lockable thermostat cover or something of this nature. (If this were in my house there's no way the kids would leave that alone. "Oooh! Sweet cause and effect! More! MORE CAUSE AND EFFECT!!!")