Okay, time for some more updating...this time, more tank related, though still small.
I spent Sunday on hanging my light within the canopy. Thank God for my brother and friends because with the weight of the light and the setup on the canopy, I needed three sets of hands to get it in there without wrecking the Oak.
I ran into some problems with my light lifter design...but nothing that I won't get fixed up by mid week. Here are some pics. Note that right now, the light is sitting on my "Red Green" style temporary stand (empty paint cans since it's all I could find in the empty house).
I'm using a linear actuator with remote control to pull the light up towards the ceiling and out of my way.
Here's the actuator:
Had to route a hole through the stand to allow for both the actuator and my wiring to pass through.
Lastly, here is how I balanced the light at each end. It worked really well and the light is level side to side.
The flaw in my design comes from the hooks used to hang it from the ceiling. Apparently, between the weight of the light and the power of the actuator, those hooks bend pretty easily. I was going to use pulleys but it made the light lower than I wanted...now I will have to use shorter closed loop hooks and pulley's in order to re-direct some of that force.
The whole contraptions works well...it just won't continue to do so for long as something has got to give in the current setup.