lastlight's 225

[sharuq1]

How's little Bryce doing?

[lastlight]

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.



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!

[lastlight]

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!







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.

[kien]

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

[lastlight]

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

[Dez]

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.

[lastlight]

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.