8 replies to this topic

[centrarchid]

I am trying to breed Pirate Perch so I can play around with a range of nesting materials.  A problem independent of what I am looking at involves fish being startled by lights coming on.  Overnight I have a low intensity red light.  Current daylight setup is wired into a timer that goes on full bore which is the problem.  I can gradually bring lighting up manually by incrementally opening a door although that chews up a lot of time otherwise devoted caring for kids and getting ready for work.  Does anyone know of any new low budget methods for bring lights up slowly? 

[MtFallsTodd]

Check out the Finnex 24/7 LED fixtures, they are fairly reasonable in price.

[Matt DeLaVega]

I might be able to build you a small unit that could work in between. I have access to LED and ballasts.Not growth spectrum, but could work fine for wake up lights. My issue at the moment would be a timer to slowly turn on more diodes. Any ideas? I have a relative nearby that has a large LED company. Can get parts for next to nothing. Need a 12 volt controller to slowly turn on more lights. I don't think they have anything like that.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Or if what Todd suggests is affordable, that is probably the ticket.

[Isaac Szabo]

I have a 48" Finnex 24/7 LED fixture. The light slowly fades through a simulated 24 hour day/night cycle, changing in color temperature and light intensity. There are never any abrupt changes in light intensity, so the fish are never startled. But the length of the day and night cycles cannot be altered (such as for simulating increases in day length), so I'm not sure if it would fully meet your needs.

[centrarchid]

This run the light may not be an issue.  They are getting into an orgy as I write.  Light is being left on to observe directly.  Female is having hard time getting her nose where she wants it.

[centrarchid]

One female just banged out.  Male is eating loose eggs.  Another female is poking around same location.  Lots of spew evident.

[Irate Mormon]

In another thread I mentioned doing exactly this with an $8 Arduino board.  You can bet somebody has already done it and you should be able to DL the code for free. 

 

Here's a typical example: http://www.dgkelectr...ased-pwm-timer/

 

What I want to do is use a remote sensor so that my aquarium lighting mimics the light outside.  It would adjust for day/night, overcast, lightning, etc.  Fairly easy to do with a CdS photo cell.  I need to work out all the details, but ATM I'm still learning how to use the board. 

[lilyea]

Working with a friend and using about $20 worth of parts we designed and built a controller to add a dawn/dusk feature to LED lights.  It currently has adjustable time, adjustable dawn time, and adjustable dusk time.  Dawn and dusk are currently set to a pre-determined 10 minute duration but could be adjustable in future iterations.  The controller is currently configured to control a small Marineland-style LED light system but could be reconfigured to work with nearly any LED system(s).  I have been running the controller for about a week with no issues (i.e., it works!).  The incremental light increase was surprisingly linear - I was anticipating a small jump in intensity at the beginning and possibly the end.  Hopefully I can slow down soon to provide a more complete write-up including directions, parts list, and code.