My Latest T5 Dimmable Light Curves

[Harry_Fish]

After finding the right combo of bulbs, making a spreadsheet
to plot the curves, and armed with the par values of my bulbs
I came up with a schedule where I get a natural ramp up/down
curve plus an extended midday period of full intensity.

The ramp up and down look very natural and the transition from
Actinic only to White and Actinic (and vise versa) is seamless.

The only tell tale sign I have is when my second cooling
fan comes on with the whites, visually it is seamless.


For bulbs I’m running:

3 Giesemann Middays (par of 325 each)
1 Giesemann Pure Actinic (par o4 157
2 Giesemann Actinic+ (par of 264 each)

I have the bulbs running on Three Dimmable
Ballast but only using two Lighting channels.


In this configuration Ch 1 is about one third the Par of Ch 2


Channel 1 (One Pure Actinic and One Actinic+, Total par = 421)

0 â€"œ 10% 6:53am â€"œ 8am
10 â€"œ 80% 8:00am â€"œ 9am
90 â€"œ 100% 9am -10am
100 â€"œ 90% 8pm - 9pm
90 â€"œ 10% 9pm -10pm
10 â€"œ 0% 10pm â€"œ 11:06pm

(The lighting curves are extended on both ends so
the bulbs will actually light at 7 am and go off at 11pm.)



Channel 2 (Three Midday Bulbs and One Actinic+, Total Par = 1239)

0 â€"œ 60% 8:59am â€"œ 10am
60 â€"œ 90% 10am â€"œ 11am
90 â€"œ 100% 11am -12pm
100 â€"œ 90% 6pm - 7pm
90 â€"œ 60% 7pm -8pm
10 â€"œ 0% 8pm â€"œ 9:01pm

(The lighting curves are extended on both ends so
the bulbs will actually light at 9 am and go off at 9pm.)



Moonlights via Simu-L and running in moon phase simulation mode.

0-25% 10:55pm-11:00pm
25%-0 7:00am -7:05am

I only run the moonlights up to 25% as any more and it is a
bit too bright this also keeps it more in the blue only range.



I am currently not running and red from the Simu-L sticks since
the Giesemann Pure Actinic is fairly violet and when I added
in the red of the Simu-L it made it too red for my taste.



Here is a plot of my lighting curve.

The line labled "Par" is actually the percentage of the total Par.
The total par curve is what I wanted to make the most natural.

Hopefully this will help someone else set up there curves.




.

 

[schwenkl]

Thanks Harry and yes, I wish things like this would get posted to the Wiki.

Finally Playing with them. Just finished what should be final bulb configuration.

Guessing your durations are 59 min. to avoid the overlap error?

I think I'm going to try yours out, just going to move the whole thing back an hour for now.

What is your Simu-L stick voltage settings?

I too am running with Moon Simulation, but like it a little brighter so am running them at 100% with default 1 - 10v. Manual states: "When using our dimmable moonlight LED's the voltage should be set at 0.8v". Is that the minimum, so should be 0.8 - 10v?

While on the subject....have ideas that the sylvania ballast are to be set at? Also, I am running them at 1 - 10v. Manual says it can vary with brand. I do get on and off at 1%......

Lastly, ever figure out what intensity you had during a dimmable period? For simplicity: Say I wanted 10 hours of light total, if I dimmed from 0 to 100% over two hours, would that add 1 hour to my total light intensity duration?

Sorry, always lots of questions. Thanks for the help / input.

 

[Harry_Fish]

Originally posted by schwenkl

Thanks Harry and yes, I wish things like this would get posted to the Wiki. ....

I just wish it was in the Manual or Help....

Originally posted by schwenkl

....
Guessing your durations are 59 min. to avoid the overlap error?
....

Yes, Hopefully they fix that.

Originally posted by schwenkl
.....
What is your Simu-L stick voltage settings?
...

1-10v I forget now but when I used .8-10 there was an Issue.

1-10 works better.

Originally posted by schwenkl
....While on the subject....have ideas that the sylvania ballast are to be set at? Also, I am running them at 1 - 10v. Manual says it can vary with brand. I do get on and off at 1%......

0-10v control is just that 0-10 volts.
so it should be set to that unless it is a non-standard ballast.

I have 4 of the Sylvania Quicktronic QT2x54/120 PHO-DIM.
(only running 3 at the moment, 4th will be added later)


On a Side note: I had 2 that were made in Germany fail,
Sylvania sent me 2 New ones that were made in Mexico.

Sylvania did not seem surprised at all when I told them
that the ballast failed. They just sent me replacements.

It does make me wonder if I should call Sylvania
to see if I can exchange the other two Ballast.

Originally posted</a> by schwenkl
..... Lastly, ever figure out what intensity you had during a dimmable period? For simplicity: Say I wanted 10 hours of light total, if I dimmed from 0 to 100% over two hours, would that add 1 hour to my total light intensity duration?

Sorry, always lots of questions. Thanks for the help / input.
.....

If you look at the plot curves above the scale of the intensity
0-100% for the par of the bulbs. It is factored from the Ballast
sheet states it is linear in response to the control voltage and
asuming the bulbs follow correctly.

Or as a better mesurement I watch the corals.

I studied true solar curves for the equator and tried
to mimic the up and down curves to match.

My day is a bit long but only 6 hours are at 100% intensity.

I extended the middle of the day to provide enough light
for the corals, in doing so they appear far healthier.


No problems on the questions, I spent a lot of time working on the lighting.

As I'm sure you know to the corals the light
is quite important, after all they use it for food.
(actually the Zooxanthella in the coral does)

I had some of my corals look really bad after my ballast
failed, It is nice to see them finally coming back to health.


Hope this helps

 

[boboxx]

hey harry, those par have been measured from what dept and using what reflector?

 

[Harry_Fish]

I used Grim Reefers # from the lighting forum.

(I would assume they are right, as he seems to be the go to guy on T5s)

 

[boboxx]

ha ok (http://tfivetesting.googlepages.com/par), those won’t be really relative to you as you are using different reflector and the Sylvania is not overdriving the bulb like other ballast are....

I would really like to get an accurate reading of the Sylvania on a Reefgeek brand reflectors before I jump on the T5 band wagon

 

[Harry_Fish]

Thats where my readings came from.

I don't believe he is over driving the bulbs.

If the math is off it is proportional so the curves still work.

I have always only run T5 (well 20+ years ago i ran T12s),.

My understanding is that the light is a quantitative thing so you can either
run short periods of Intense light or longer periods with lower light.

Though the tank still needs a daily "night" period.

I plan on rebuilding my hood and running 8 tubes
with SLR reflectors but i have a few priorities first.

I'm still putting the finishing touches on the 180.