The lights do slide up and down on tracks w/ rollers. It will be raised and lowered with a small winch system. Good eye, reef angel!! I can raise them a total of 3 ft above the water so i have plenty of room to work in the tank. I can lower them to within 4 inches off of the water. There are emergency stops so if the lights would ever fall, they will never come closer than 6 inches from the top of the water. I can change that level if i want to.
The ballasts are mounted into the wall on the side of the tank. They will be vented to the inside and outside. In the winter they will be vented into the house for the heat and in the summer they will be vented outdoors. We are using something like a damper or a chimney flume that you use in a fireplace. Open, it vents outside. Closed, it vents inside.
My poor husband is working frantically to get this all done before Christmas when the families all come over. Not easy to do when you work 10 hrs a day.
I will post more pics as soon as I get them. I have a TON of aquascaping to get done. Everything is sorta thrown in there right now. I couldn't see very well because of the sandstorm. I just put it in and let it clear overnight. So ignore the crappy aquascaping for now. lol.