Fading lights?

[microsun]

ooh, cool! I've thought about getting those, too, so I can watch my night feeders in action. I'm too poor for the whole fixture, though, and can't sacrifice a bulb in my overhead light as I have live plants. I'd probably go with the stick-on 1W ones, if anything.

eBay has LED moonlights cheap, less than $30 shipped (for the 10-LED). How big is your tank? There's a 5-LED version for small tanks, 10-LED for ~10-20gallons, and 20-LED for 20+ gallon tanks!

You can also daisy chain them if you have a larger tank, and they also have a controller/timer to control each set of lights (I think), but those are pretty $$$. Just check eBay for "moonlight led" and you should get some hits.

There's also a few submersible neon bulbs, but I wouldn't trust anything actually submersed into my tank.

 

[bpimm]

I am interesting in finding a lighting solution that can be 'hands free' for my two 55 gallon tanks, such as a timer, only with the option for the lights to slowly fade out at night and slowly come on in the morning.
Thanks for any info or ideas!

I'm in the process right now of designing my light system to do just that.
I will be using halogen spots for the power up and power down cycle.

The light is just about done but I still have to build the light controller.

you can follow the project here

light project

 

[wackydan]

A better, almost cheaper alternative is to put a table or floor lamp in the room on a timer. Just needs to throw enough light that the fish know it's there, and that will prevent the instant on/off reactin you are getting. You can check this effect out by just turning off your aquarium lights and playing with the lights in the room.

Of course, if it's your bedroom, it may not be ideal!!

If you can't spare the lamp in this mode, you can always add a small night stand type light that uses a low wattage lamp, or even a night light closer in to the tank.

Might be worth playing around with before you commit to something more expensive or ordering over the internet.