Simulated Lighting based by Zipcode, weather, etc...

[Trevor S]

I was surfing around and stumbled across this

http://www.iepc.cc/?page=vb400
.."The VB400 LCS simulates natural sun patterns based on zip codes entered into its microprocessor, so you can accurately mimic the sunlight of natural habitats for fish and other animals."...

What do you guys think?

 

[funman1]

I can see how this would help if you have inverts from Florida or such,
but most of the stuff in our tanks comes from places that have never even heard of a zip code..??

But very cool none the less

 

[Trevor S]

what if you were able to get a zip code or maybe a country code from fiji or anywhere else in the world?

 

[funman1]

I could not find anything about Country codes in the docs?

 

[MrMikeB]

Mimicking indigenous environmental parameters is essential to me for propagation studies. The closer I can make my 'hotel' feel like 'home' for my studies, the more apt the specimens are to making babies. Well at least this is my running theory.

To this end, I would be very interested in locale based recording of light, currents, temps, etc. I imagine much of this is tracked for weather purposes, so purhaps the good folks at NOAA might have something?

Thanks Trevor for a great find!

 

[bored4long]

Mike, are you planning to have geospecific setups? Sounds complicated...

 

[MrMikeB]

Well I can go on for hours (no surprise), but the basic premise is that the more I can duplicate natural conditions that my subjects are used to - where they obviously have great success in reproducing, the less variables I will have to isolate. Observation and obtaining metrics like this helps me build out and control the environments I need. I will be running only a couple tests in parallel, so managing a particular configuration and the control parameter should not be too difficult. Well, easy for me to say now, eh?

 

[kevin95695]

My hunch is that these units take the zip code, convert it to latitude then use daylight tables to set on/off times. Anybody got the time to call their tech support?

 

[Nuuze]

My Sfiligoi ACLS dimmable ballasts does Long/Lat for areas of the world. Also has overcast feature to simulate stormy days, moonlights and a new bulb feature.

 

[Trevor S]

Nuuze -

How long do your MH bulbs last with the dimmable ballasts? I have read too much bad things about the dimmable MH... explains why I have made the jump to ACLS yet

 

[WarrenG]

The questions I have been asking myself...

Is the light the corals see on a reef optimal for their growth and coloration?

What is the benefit to the coral in a tank of providing occasionally lower light levels?

How well does the spectral output of the lamps match the spectrum of light the corals see in the wild?

What is the intensity of the lamps compared to natural light in each of the (ranges) blue, violet, red, and green wavelengths?

How do we ensure that we are not causing photoinhibition?

 

[Nuuze]

So far I have used the BLV DE 250w 10k's for six months and swapped them out for 12k reeflux. While I like the colors on the 12k and "brightness" was reduced. My arm did not feel the intensity anymore during tank cleaning sessions like the 10k's and started to loose some color on certain SPS. So I swapped back the the same 10k bulbs now for a week. I'm going to see if it will go another 3 months or so.

The ACLS dims from 60-100% intensity. No, I never actually measured the light.

 

[yoboyjdizz]

This is a very interesting topic, but to simulate ones environment to one area with species in your tank from many different areas would be difficult. Unless you set up a region only tank then i could see how this could be possible. I could be off here since i never really looked into all the reefs specifically where our corals and fish come from. I do know that most areas are very close in resemblance right?

 

[Nuuze]

Hehe!

I just time mine from 12PM to 12AM now. The new bulb feature is cool. From the time you turn it on it starts at 75% to 100% over a 10 day period I think it was. And the cloudy day feature is cool to see if I know I'm going to be home the whole day... It was hard enough to get the ACLS to the correct display time with the long/lat and turn on when I wanted it to.

12PM-3PM actinics
3PM-9PM halides
9PM-12AM actinics

 

[WarrenG]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11671497#post11671497 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by yoboyjdizz
This is a very interesting topic, but to simulate ones environment to one area with species in your tank from many different areas would be difficult. Unless you set up a region only tank then i could see how this could be possible. I could be off here since i never really looked into all the reefs specifically where our corals and fish come from. I do know that most areas are very close in resemblance right?

When I go diving in places (like Fiji) that have colorful acroporas I see them at about 15-45 feet deep. There are some exceptions but this is the normal depth. Staghorn corals in brown will go right to the surface. At Dr F & S they list the depth that corals were collected and those listed depths match my observations.

For montipora plate/cup corals I tend to see them at depths of about 20-70 feet deep. Large formations are seen around Hawai'i, especially near Kona.

From reading this article and looking at the graphs the VHO actinics and T5 blues provide a light that is close to what's found at about 20 feet deep. Go deeper than that and the light loses all of it's red and then yellow, orange, green and violet as you go.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/cav1i4/fluorescent_lamps/fluorescent_lamps.htm

We can also find measurements of the light intensity at those depths and it would vary between something near 1000 "einsteins" (roughly equivalent to 440w of VHO), to less than that.

But the question goes back to, is the natural light best? I tend to think so because while the water movement can affect which corals live at which depths, I still don't see the most colorful corals living close to the surface when the water movements at the surface are similar to the water movements at the depth where they're most often found. I assume the corals live mostly at the depths at which they are best-suited to live based on the light because that is the most significant variable that I see. But, I could be wrong.

 

[MrMikeB]

These are all great discussion items. And, very much on topic for February's meeting where we are booking a very special guest speaker and a guru on reef lighting. You don't want to miss this - bring you friends, and your questions!

As soon as I get confirmation everything is a booked and ready, I will start my monthly meeting topic thread with all the details.

 

[WarrenG]

MrMikeB, excellent segway to a plug! Smooth as a newscaster.

 

[MrMikeB]

What can I say? Spreading my gospel all over town whenever I see a chance is what I do. I want you all to be as jazzed about the work your Board has been up to in making 2008 a great year to be a MARS member.