T5 Lighting question.

[SeanT]

Bear with me while I try to explain.

I am bulding a lighting canopy for my new tank.
Right now it is just in the planning stage.

I am going to use 2, 48", 6x54 watt UltraSolaris for the Left and Right sides.

In the center I am going to use an Icecap 6 bulb retrofit.
These come with 2 ballasts.
An Icecap 630 to power 4 of the bulbs and an Icecap 430 to power the other 2.

What I would like to do (and want to know if its possible) is NOT use the Icecap 430 ballast for the 2 bulbs, and instead use the "54 watt dimmable ballast for use with Profilux".

My thinking is that I can slowly bring those two bulbs to full lighting first before having all the other T5 bubs turning on.

Is this possible?
And if it is would it prevent me from using 2-4 L-Sticks as well?

Thank you,
Sean

 

[AQD_ottawa]

Yes you can retrofit this with the sylvania GHL supported dimmable ballasts, this will tie in with your two solaris lights.

This will not stop you using the simu-L sticks either, although you may require further PLM-4L expansion card(s) depending on your final set up

Regards
Michael

 

[jpduton]

Which type of lamp would you have on the Dimmable ballast? Daylight or Actinic?

You would probably lose the cloud effect if you only had two lamps on the 1-10v control.

 

[SeanT]

I was thinking actinic on the dimmable.
Just to slowly raise the light up instead of all light on at once.
This is more for me than the fish or corals.

 

[Harry_Fish]

All my lights are dimmable T-5's (white and blue), Moonlights, & Sunrise/Set.

The corals do notice; as the lights dim they pull in, change shape, etc.

The snails come out and get active, the fish start to calm down getting ready for night time, etc.

All before the lights go out for the night.

It is intersting to see the behavior changes.

Also by having them all dim the storms are better, the fish come out looking for food in the storms.

 

[SeanT]

Sounds great.
Hopefully I can get a similar effect with the first two and last two T5's turned on doing the same thing.

 

[Harry_Fish]

I'm not sure what the price is for the Icecap in comparison to the dimmable ballast (I got mine from Cherry corals as he had the best price I could find on dimmable T5 ballast), but the effect is really nice.

Here is how I have my curves set

1 = 2 Actinic T-5 Bulbs
2 = 1 Actinic and, 3 10k Bulbs
3 = Moonlights
4 = Sun Rise/Set

I'm running six T-5 bulbs total

 

[SeanT]

lol that looks nice but I have no idea what I am seeing.

I haven't played with the controller or software at all yet.

 

[jpduton]

Each line is a different dimmable light. The slanted lines indicate how the lights dim up until it flat lines which is at the lights peak output.

So your would show one big boob shape indicating your single dimmable light curve. The graph won't indicate your other nondimmable light, but you can imagine a square shaped line as you timed lighting.

His black line is his dimmable actinics, so your actinic dim line would be similar to his. His starts at 8:30a.m and gets to peak output at 2:00p.m

 

[jpduton]

However you may want to shorten the time it take you actinics to reach maximum output at which time your other lights would kick in.

 

[jpduton]

Here's my light lines

Curve 1 is my Led simu spot Moonlight. On at 12:00 pm off at 10am with two hour dim from 0 to 100% and 100 to 0%
Curve 2 is my led simu spot Sunrise/set. On at 1.05pm off at 11:20pm with one hour dim in and out.
Curve 3 & 4 are my non dimmable (hence the square shape lines) 2pm to 11:45.

 

[SeanT]

Why do you keep your led simu spot Sunrise/set light on all day.

Do you have the ability to turn it on slowly, reach its peak, turn it on and then before the main lights go out then turn it back on?

 

[jpduton]

No particular reason, the red adds a little bit of colour, I may decide later to turn the red off after my MH hit capacity.

Yes the curves can be set any way you like it.
You can have it turn on as slow or as fast as you want, you enter the number of minutes that you woulf like the dim to last for.