Dimming lights

[cessna driver]

Just wondering if anyone dims their lamps or would if they could,

I'm considering doing away with the 3 T8s in my hood and cramming a few T5s in there, and maybe dimming them on and off to simulate sunrise & sunset.

It would have no other purpose other than effect and maybe not startle the fish when lights turn on and off.

thoughts?

[Ice222]

Pretty sure you can't dim florescent lighting, not T8s or T5s. I'm not sure about MH but the only aquarium lighting I can think of that could be dimmed is LED, and LED setups like that are pretty uncommon and hard to find atm. An alternative is to purchase lights where the tubes all have separate switches or cables, so that you can turn them on/off one by one to make the changes more gradual. If the system has multiple cables, you could even have a different timer for each tube to automate the changes.

[SamH]

It would have no other purpose other than effect and maybe not startle the fish when lights turn on and off.

You can ease lights on one at a time, cannot dim fluoros though. They are either on or off. Maybe a small moonlight for like 30mins before and after main lights out?

[alanmin4304]

I have light dimmers on the flouro lights I have on the reptile enclosure. They take about half an hour to fully come on and the same to go off. They operate 2 x t8s and are available in pairs of 20,30, and 40 watts I think. The main disadvantage is that they will only operate two tubes and you cannot turn only one off. They have a timer which sets for 10,12 or 14 hours. They are usually available on trademe on the reptile section I think. On an aquarium I have 2x15 watt incandescant bulbs on dimmers that stay on 24/7 and act as pilot lights so the fish don't get a complete fright when the flouros come on. Incandescent bulbs are the cheapest form of red light for plant growth.

[Ira]

I haven't noticed any of my fish getting a fright from the lights turning on. A bit of a twitch, but that's it.

[cessna driver]

you can dim fluros, i've installed hundreds of them, mostly used in the chicken industry (they require a special ballast).

It was the chicken industry work I do that gave me the idea, where the computer will gradually bring the lights on and off over a period of time

so the birds settle better.

As an electrician it wouldn't be hard for me to do.

[Cricketman]

The only place I can think of this being really worth the money is on fry tanks to avert the possibility of sudden fright syndrome that can affect the exposed spinal chords as the myelin sheath develops... funny enough, the first search on google points to a post I made a while ago about this in bangaii cardinals..

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=40967

other than that, it seems an expensive excercise to undertake for a effect, and little real benifit.

But having said that, whatever floats your boat...

[phoenix44]

I wouldn't really bother to be honest.

I have 4x54W T5HO on my tank; 2 come on at 9am and go off at 6pm and the other 2 come on at 10am and go off at 9pm.

You don't really need to transition the lights. Even in a reef like tank its not needed but timers on the lights are usually used.

If you have the spare money and this is the best way you can think of spending it, go hard! :lol:

[suphew]

I actually think it's a great idea, and try and ease the lights on as much as possible on my tanks, typically I use a blue light to come on first and go off last and stagger the other main lights.

There's a lot of assumptions being make about how much sudden light does or doesn't stress the fish when really none of us have tested it. The logic I use is how much I would stress if my bedroom light was suddenly turned on particularly if it was at random cause a timer wasn't being use.

If you have access to the gear to do this go hard.