Can lights come on slowly?

[geno]

I was wondering if lights can be programmed to come on <u>slowly</u>?

I have the 72 Outer Orbit with 3 MH and 4 Actinics -- I was thinking it would be nice if the actinics could come on slowly -- sort of ramp up -- as well as ramp down at night.

I was sitting in front of the tank last night -- having been out of town for a few days -- just enjoying the tank -- and boom -- it went dark -- seems like it would be more natural if things could just get dark slowly.

Any thoughts?
-geno

 

[mockery]

yeah dude you can. just go and buy a few light timers and plug the antics into one and the MH in to another and if yours has lunars just plug those into the opposite of the antics

 

[crew]

i wonder if you could put a fader on them i doubt it tho since its not filamented

 

[stickx911]

most floursants can not be dimmed. I am unsure about MH.

 

[ckwatson]

I think you would have to buy new lights. I think there are some ballasts that will slowly up the watts through out the day. So when they come on you may have 250w but by noon you could have 400 then back down before they turn off. Im sure some one will chime in and let me know if this is right or not.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

No one makes self dimming ballast for MH. CoralVue makes a dimmable ballast, but it is a knob that you have to turn. VHO are dimmable, they make a module that can ramp them.

 

[geno]

Thanks -- you confirmed what I thought -- can't be done inexpensively.

My ACJr does a fine job as a timer for simple on/off -- but it seemed that a slow increase and decrease of lighting would be a nice touch.

The kids in the tank will just have to live with the abrupt change in lighting:yuk:

 

[geno]

dawgdude,

I do have the actinics come on first and a few hours later the MH come on. They go off in reverse order.

My moon lights stay on 24/7