Aquarium Lights

[electro*junkie]

Does anyone have their aquarium lights hooked up to X10? I just got a new 75 gallon tank and I'd like to automate the lighting. I haven't decided what kind of lights to get, most popular seem to be the long tube flourescent variety. Anyone have a similar setup?

[randy h]

Hi Electro,
I have a 55 gal tank that came with two seperate 18 inch flourescent fixtures. These fixtures are the type that have the little round twist in ballast. I have since switched to fixtures that hold two incandescent bulbs each for two reasons:

1. The flourescent lights were extremely noisey in regards to x10. Signals not only to the lights themselves, but to devices on the same circuit were erratic at best.

2. The fixtures themselves become corroded due to the close proximity to the water I guess. Changing a ballast became a huge hassle due to the corrision build up in its socket.

I would suggest switching to incandescent. I ended up using light fixtures from a reptile cage, but kept the bottom portiion of the orignal flourescent hoods. That bottom portion gives a glass seperation between water and fixture that I felt was important for safety reasons.

I have programmed Hal to gradually dim the lights on a schedule, thus giving the tank occupants a more realistic sunset. <grin> That would not have been possible with the flourescents.

randy

[electro*junkie]

Hey Randy,

Good idea. I currently have 2 long flourescents that a friend gave me hooked up to two X10 appliance modules. It serves its temporary purpose for now, but I think I am going to go with incandescents as you suggested. I definitely like the sunset idea. Sorry that it took so long for me to get back to ya, I haven't had time to get on the forum in awhile. Thanks for the tip!

- Chad

[Roel]

[quote:596935ea40=\"randy h\"]...I have programmed Hal to gradually dim the lights on a schedule, thus giving the tank occupants a more realistic sunset. <grin> That would not have been possible with the flourescents. [/quote:596935ea40]

I switched to incandescent but never think about the sunset effect. Good Idea. Thanks for sharing.

[AutomatedOutlet]

Yeah, neat idea.

[randy h]

Awwww shucks, :oops:

I'm glad you folks liked the idea, and I'm sure your fishes do too.

randy

[AutomatedOutlet]

Hehe, I'm sure that they are deep thinking creatures!

[jlipsit]

Many people use HAL to gradully dim or brighten their bedroom lights as they go to sleep or wake. It's the method nature uses and is a comforting way to wake or rest.

Of course you may need HAL to play a back-up if the lights are full-on and you are still zonked out:

Who let the dogs out? (http://www.james.lipsit.com/Homeauto/dogs%20out.wav)

[VincentB]

It's so cool to hear that there's so many other fish-fans on here!
I've got 3 tanks in my house - one of them is fresh-water. My HAL also controls this fish tank's lighting, and i've got an automated feeder that i'd prefer to wire up to HAL (just 'coz it would be neater), and i'm currently in the process of setting up HAL to change the water for me also! Like this:

I've run 2 garden hoses from outside the house to my fish tank:
- Hose #1 will have one end connected to the garden's sprinkler system and the other end into a pump. The pump's other end has a hose that is to be buried deep in the tank's rocks, with a mesh grid (so rocks can't pass through it).

- Hose #2 will have one end connected to the outside tap and the other end into the tank, via an electric valve.

The tricky part: I'm going to configure HAL to trigger a circuit ('coz i can't trust HAL to do each action, or else disaster may strike). HAL will use a universal module to trigger a switch for a circuit I'm building.. the circuit's steps:


STEP1 - DRAIN:
It will first turn on the pump.. this sucks the water out of the tank, slowly... since it sucks it through the rocks, i hope it will also suck some of the fish-waste also.
When the water reaches a certain level (eg: drops to 2/3 full), I'll design some waterproof switches (and back up switches, and also a safety cut-out timer!) that will disengage the pump.

STEP2 - REFILL:
The circuit will then turn on the electric valve. The valve will allow the water to flow from the tap into the fish tank. Once again, another set of switches (and a saftey cut-out timer) will allow the tank to refill, and auto stop.

STEP3 - PURIFY:
Then the circuit will trigger a small container to squirt some chemicals into the water (ammonia neutralisers, etc etc).

It sounds like a pretty full on design, and I'm sure alot of people have ideas to mock it, so i'm open to suggestions. I'll still be doing syphon cleans to get rid of the fish-waste, but this saves me my water changes... i currently drain the water via syphoning and buckets, and refill with a hose, and they've still been after several years :-)

[JimMcGowanInlet]

Not a fish person: Doesn't the sudden change in water kill fish? I thought thats why you floated the bag of fish in the water before releasing them?

[VincentB]

If i changed a majority of the water, then that would be bad, but 1/3 water change is ok. It does feel a little colder in the tank, but they are still happy. A marine biologist rents off me and she says it's ok. The fish have handled that procedure for a couple of years already. The heater in the water fixes the temperature soon enough anyway.

Also, i live in a tropical climate area - most of our weather is nice or hot.. it never gets freezing cold.

[randy h]

That's a prety neat idea Vincent. I may try and incorporate some of your plans someday.

I can appreciate all of your saftey backup cutoffs too. I automatically water my plants from my aquarium (easier to see water level in aquarium than moisture level in dirt). It seems like I have a hundred backup shutoff schemes along with the intake tube only going about an inch deep into the aquarium. That way if my backup shutoffs do indeed fail, the intake depth will only allow a couple gallons loss at most. Man, I wish x10 were more trustworthy... ...I should think about hardwiring with a secu16 instead. :?

randy

[VincentB]

Although i wouldn't trust X10 to control my fish tank, you shouldn't be losing X10 signals unless you have interference in the house. Strangely enough, my SECU16 has also played up a few times.

The system I'll design will be all driven via a stand-alone circuit... x10 will be used to trigger the whole process... so if the X10 signal does get lost, it simply means the water won't get changed for that period. The stand-alone circuit will be in charge of performing each step... that way if it fails, i only have myself to kick :shock:

[VincentB]

I just found out something interesting - thought i'd share, with other fish lovers:

Incadescant lighting is apparently bad for fish. I have a girl renting off me who's a marine biologist...she's got 2 salt-water fish tanks in my house, and 1've got one fresh-water tank. I changed my fluro light to 2 incadescant bulbs, and connected an X10 light dimmer to them so i can try that light-slowly-on-in-morning idea. When i turned the lights on, the fish fell to the bottom of the tank and layed on their sides! I immediately turned it off and tried it again later, with only 1 bulb - same thing. Found out that apparently incadescant bulbs emit a part of the frequency spectrum at a level that is harmful to fish. I thus switched back to my fluro :(

I'm not sure how an incadescant bulb can emit a storng enough frequency that will upset them, but sure enough practise proved theory. I know some people are using incadescants on their tanks and their fish are fine, but i thought i'd just warn you.

[randy h]

Thanks for the tip Vincent. I'll keep it in mind. However, I have had my incandescent bulbs for at least a year or more and my fish seem to be doing fine (growing larger all the time). Maybe there are specific species that can or cannot handle that lighting.

Anyway, thanks for the warning and I'll check some fish boards for more info.

randy

[oldsalty]

Cool, I have a 100 reef tank that has had x-10 controling it for over 10 years now. I have to use flouresent lamps but I also use metal halide on this tank. I installed x-10 wall switches for the setup and also (VERY IMPOTRANT) a Ground Fault Breaker. The only noise problems I have is some interferance on local tv channel 5. I also have a 4000 gal koi pond and of course HAL controles all the pumps there as well.

Happy FISH Keeping
Kelly