Custom Moonlight Idea...

[menelaus22]

I'd like to set up a moonlight in my 20g tank but don't really feel like lighting my entire room in an eery blue. So, here's the idea.

I want to set up a strip of LED across the top that will gradually turn on and off sequentially down the strip. I would like to have the time split to simulate the movement of the moon, ie: cutting across the horizon.

Any Idea on how to do this without about a hundred timers?

[Geoff]

not a big fan of moonlights, unless they are accurate. as in the intensity changes along with the timing over the course of 28 days. other than that it is just a light so that you can see and keep the critters up. if you want to add a light to do that make it a red light. red is not seen by many of the critters we keep in our tanks. that way you can see what is going on, yet not disrupt the critters. some critters in our systems only come out when it is pitch black. if you put a moonlight on the system than they will not come out.

sorry, moonlights are a pet peeve of mine.

as for a timing thing hopefully some of our programmer people will chime in.

G~

[orlenz]

you can use a sign speller, there kind of expensive unless you luck out and find a used one, they have a shafy with adjustable cams that open and close contacts for different circuits, they also have electronic ones but there even more expensive, I'll try to find a link to pic of one, for intensity you can just solder a rheostat inline between your transformer and the LED's, its just like turning a volume control.

[orlenz]

I just thought of a better wat to do it, use a couple standard 555 timers, do a google on 555 timer projects, I'm sure it would be fairly simple.