Has anyone tried this??

[jdheff1982]

I was thinking that it would really cool to setup a lighting in which that it would simulate an entire day. Here is my idea....

Get 6 compact lights that will be seated side by side going the whole lenghth of the tank. Now then, everybody is on an 8 hour timer starting at 7 am going to 8 pm. Here is the sequence

7am> far left light comes on
8 am> light comes on
9 am> ditto
10> ditto
11> ditto
12> far right light is now on - everybody is on

Now starting at 2 pm the far left light turns off and each hour until 8 pm a light turns off.

What do you thing??? I think it would be the best way to simulate an actual morning, noon, and evening times in an aquarium. Once I get enough money, I may try that. 1 thing though, what wattage of bulbs should I use. Using 6 15 watt bulbs is gonna be murder on the fish, do they make 5 or 10 watt flourescent bulbs?? Thanks!!

BTW, I think this could be a future arketed lighting setup. If anyone has suggestions (improvements/changes) to my idea, I'll be watching! Thanks!

 

[NJ Devils Fan]

That sounds awesome. I would start the lights an hour earlier though.

 

[Timmain42]

Well, I haven't tried it yet, but I'm about to. I'm creating a "Year-Round River Simulation" tank.

The only real difference between our lighting setups is the number and type of lights:

I'm using two 30W flourescents to simulate dusk and dawn, and 4 400W MH lights to simulate sunlight. Basically, the system is hung quite a distance above the bottom of the tank (nearly 4 feet) and is numbered like this...

Morning Flourscent = 1
Metal Halides = a-d
Evening Fourscent = 2
The 30WFs are also tinted with gels to appear yellow in the morning and red in the evening. All the lights are attached to a 2" metal pipe and are turned a little so that they each have a slightly different angle to them, simulating the angle of the sun at different times during the day.

The firing sequence is
8:30 1
9-10 1+a
10-12 a
12-2 b
2-4 b+c
4-6 c
6-8 d
8-9 d+2
9-9:30 2

By doing this, I can simulate the passage of the sun over the course of a tropical day (about 12 hours). Also, I've figured out a way to have the angle of the lighting setup change during the course of the year, much like the angle of lighting changes in nature due to the rotation of the earth. And this doesn't include the innovations I had built into my tank (the tank manufacturer called to tell me that no one has *ever* asked for the modifications I asked for on my tank).

I will post pics in a couple of months, once I have the whole setup done.

 

[jdheff1982]

Sounds cool timman!! I was wanting to experiment this on a 37 gallon tank using a ballists system of some sort with everbody on timers. Don't know if I have the money to do this, but I might try!!

 

[mokmu]

Sounds terribly interesting!!!! I shall be following up on this thread. Timmain42 give us updates. Thanks.

 

[jderuiter]

You folks have way too much time on your hands! lol