light timers

[Booboo33062]

I've been reading about lights on timers, and it is something I want to do. I have no experience with these though, and have no idea what to even look for. It does make sense that turning the lights on full force in the morning would freak the fish out. It sure does me anyhow. Anyone have any suggestions on how to do this for a newbie

[skeety]

Well..in general, you can go to any hardware store or home depot/lowes, and pick up an outlet timer. It basically plugs into the wall, and you plug whatever light you want into it. It shuts off the outlet at a designated time, and turns back on the outlet at another designated time.

That answers your question about timers.

But your question also seems to ask about not shocking the fish. That answers a little more complex (not much...just a little ).

I don't know that there are many lights out there that dim on and back off, so that means that to make it easier on your fish, it would involve multiple lights, of varying brightness, coming on at different times.

A dim light comes on. A bit later, a brighter light comes on.

The lighting system I just ordered has three differnt types of light, and each one has it's own plug. I'll plug all three into the timer-units I mentioned earlier. And time them to come on at different times.

Until the system gets in, I actually happen to simulate the affect with my zombie-like morning routine . i get up, come down stairs, turn on the kitchen light so I can make coffee, let the dogs out, etc. This light is a room away from the tank, which is all dark.

Then, after coffee's started, dogs are relieved/fed, I go in the room that the tank's in, turn on the light, so I can turn on the radio.

About 10 minutes after that, the tank light comes on. So to the fish (in my mind), it looks like light is slowly getting closer to them, until WHAM...it's right over them.

However, I have no routine like this at night....so that's why I bought the unit! hehehe

hope this helped.

[Smo]

Originally Posted by Booboo33062

I've been reading about lights on timers, and it is something I want to do. I have no experience with these though, and have no idea what to even look for. It does make sense that turning the lights on full force in the morning would freak the fish out. It sure does me anyhow. Anyone have any suggestions on how to do this for a newbie.

Just what skeety says, go to Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Sears, etc., and find those $6 or $8 timers. Plug a power strip into the timer and your lights into the power strip. This way you can control a whole bunch of lights comming off/on at the same time.
As far as full force lights on all-at-once: My tank is in the dining room which has windows that face East and South. I always angle all the blinds so no direct sunlight hits the tank long before sunrise actually takes place. So I let the natural light from the morning sun brighten up the room and tank, then at 10am it's all lights on!
I use to set the timer on the lights earlier, but am now battling a grass algae war and I am slowly winning!

Enjoy!

[Loverotties]

I have three HomeDepot $4.95 timers.

[VWD]

ice cap have ballast that you can dim, but I think that when you start taken current away from bulbs you shorten the life of the bulb.But You can do it


Vince

[aussiereefer82]

Many people (myself included) have blue actinic lights that we use to simulate dawn and dusk in our tanks. We have the dull/soft blue lights come on about an hour or 2 before our main daylight/bright lights thus giving the fish time to adjust. I personally have three different bulbs settings, i have blue actinics that comes on at 10am, 1x 10000k that comes on at 12pm and another 10000k that comes on at 12.30pm, i then reverse this of a night time. a good pictorial example of this Michael Moyes website www.moyesreef.com He has pics of the various stages of his lighting cyle on his website. Its also an awsome site and an awsome tank, check it out.

As for the timers, as other people have suggested the cheapo appliance timers are as good as any.

Hope this helps.

[skeety]

Sounds like a lot of people have these multiple timers set in stages.

You'd think someone would have come out with something like a surge protector, but with different timers for each outlet. Seems like something that would be usefull, and commonly used.

As opposed to having three separate bulky timers....just one strip, with 3 or 4 timers built in.

hmmm....maybe I should INVENT one!

(hmmm...maybe I shouldn't share my invention with a forum of people before I get my patent)

But I already know someone will tell me it's already been invented.

[Loverotties]

Yes there is but I think it does four but only two different times or something like that.

[rockster2599]

Originally Posted by aussiereefer82

Many people (myself included) have blue actinic lights that we use to simulate dawn and dusk in our tanks. We have the dull/soft blue lights come on about an hour or 2 before our main daylight/bright lights thus giving the fish time to adjust.

This is pretty much what I do, actinics for 1 hr either side of my T5's

Originally Posted by aussiereefer82

As for the timers, as other people have suggested the cheapo appliance timers are as good as any.

Now this I dissagree with, I have had problems with the mechanical type timers (with a turning wheel on them) but no problems with digital timers (with and LCD screen). If you read the smallprint on a lot of the wheel type timers they state they are not for use with flourescent or metal halide lighting. This is the case in the UK but I dont think it would be much different in the states.
Rockster