Dawn And Dusk Modes On Lights

[monte]

Hello

I've read the moonlighting thread here and I'm very interested in making one of these for my tank.

I was just wondering; Is there any way to get my lights to fade into nothing at night? Maybe over 30 minutes or so. I don't really want my lights to flick straight over into moonlight.

Is this possible with any clever electronics? My lights are on a timer at the moment, so is there any add-on that I could use?

Thanks

 

[Jape]

Unfortunately, AFAIK, there is no way of dimming flourescent lamps to any extent. This Article explains why

Shame though - you are right that a gradual fade from day to night and vice-versa would be better then the sudden 'on/off'

If you have more than one tube on different timers, then you could stagger their times so one comes on a while before the other?

 

[monte]

Hmmm interesting, thanks for the link. It seems to be possible to get it to 50% fade. I might have a look into it a bit more, maybe with a moonlight crossover cutting in then.

I'm not an expert at electrics but this is something that I think would really benefit my tank. Would also look really cool

 

[walker001]

I was needing more light for my tank and only had a one bulb hood. It was only 20 watts. I finally bought a 2 bulb hood that was on sale and it had 40 watts. Still not happy, I removed the feeder flap thing on the tank cover and took the old single bulb hood and set it up there. It fit, so I turned the 2 bulb hood backward and went to Home Depot. I bought a cabinet handle and a pair of cabinet hinges and 2 timers.


It works well, I have the 1 bulb hood with a gro-light flourescent that isnt a bright white, its that odd bleached red color and since it has its own power cord, its timed to come on in the morning first, then the 2nd hood comes on about 45 mins later, around the middle of the day, I have the grow light go off for an hour siesta time for the fish and in the evening the 2 bulb turns off first and about 30 mins later the single goes off for the night.

If you're like me, you have a spare light fixture or two laying around to play with. It works, and doesnt look too shabby either.

Walker

Tank hood in view

 

[Rooster]

You can only dim flourescent tubes to about 50% - then they just go out ! Expensive to do to...

Staged is the way most folk go... turn off tubes one by one...

Or... cold cathode tubes can be dimmed further than "normal" tubes... local computer shop is cheapest... these run on 12V into an inverter that jumps up the voltage, but you can alter the input down to around 5V where they are quite dim.

Or... LEDS have come on in leaps and bounds over the past few years, they can be dimmed all the way, but are not bright enough for plants yet, so a mixture of the above seems the only way, I may have a look at this myself.