Why is my 48" Aquean LED light set up causing my fish to tweak out?

[lloyd378]

Why is my 48" Aquean LED light set up causing my fish to tweak out?

I picked up an Aquean 48" Led light fixture with the day white bulb. I also added a colormax bulb. I thought it was pretty cool that these fixtures came with built in blue moon lights to help transition my fish into total darkness. I am now thinking I was wrong! The last two nights (the only two times I tried the moon light) I have flipped the switch from full on to moonlight mode, only to have a fish (each night a different Bifa) completely tweak out. The first night my small fish smashed into both sides of the tank (5' )to finally come to a rest against a large (5lb) rock that it knocked on its side. Last night when I did the switch, the larger bifa went from gravel to breaching the water back to the rocks to finally wedging itself out of the water and into my extra HOB filter. Both fish suffered some severe road rash on their faces. tonight all i did was turn off the light completely and none of the fish tweaked at all.

Am I doing something wrong with this moonlight thing, or are my fish just freaks? Or both.... haha. any thoughts/ advice would be appreciated as I really do love this light, and my fish, and I would like them to all work together.
thanks in advance,
lloyd

 

[Addicted2CAs]

Re: Why is my 48" Aquean LED light set up causing my fish to tweak out?

When I put 2 in the umbee tank I set the time to have them come on 30mins before the main (2x 8K bulbs) tank lights went out. They seemed not to react much when the main lights kicked off for the first week of being setup that way.
Try turning them on when there is a different light source coming in such as sunlight or an overhead light, then let it get dark with the moonlights on.

 

[lloyd378]

Re: Why is my 48" Aquean LED light set up causing my fish to tweak out?

I wish I could turn mine on, but it's set up to be one or the other. I really don't want to tear it apart to rewire anything, as it's brand new and working like a champ. plus it was pretty darn expensive.... thanks for the info, I'll have to come check it out!

 

[Addicted2CAs]

Re: Why is my 48" Aquean LED light set up causing my fish to tweak out?

No problem, you can still get the same effect as them being separate. Just make sure there is an external light source that slightly overpowers the moonlights, that way they can slowly adjust to them instead of going from daylight to straight blue.

 

[nick_76]

Re: Why is my 48" Aquean LED light set up causing my fish to tweak out?

i like the LED setups, but i just cant see shuckin over the $$$ for a lot of the systems out there...now, i know the economics of making high quality products for a niche market (just look at the cost for sailboat parts sometime!) but at the same time part of me is screaming .."theyre just friggin LEDs, fer cryin out loud!"

now, ive found 3W LEDs in bulk for .62 ea I am tempted to put together my own system to complement the T5s i just bought

now if i can come up with a way to manipulate individual LEDs so the light comes on (or goes off) slowly ...hmmm...give me a moment to consider this one...

 

[Addicted2CAs]

Re: Why is my 48" Aquean LED light set up causing my fish to tweak out?

i like the LED setups, but i just cant see shuckin over the $$$ for a lot of the systems out there...now, i know the economics of making high quality products for a niche market (just look at the cost for sailboat parts sometime!) but at the same time part of me is screaming .."theyre just friggin LEDs, fer cryin out loud!"

now, ive found 3W LEDs in bulk for .62 ea I am tempted to put together my own system to complement the T5s i just bought

now if i can come up with a way to manipulate individual LEDs so the light comes on (or goes off) slowly ...hmmm...give me a moment to consider this one...

Thats awesome! My brother and I are actually doing this now, building an LED fixture from scratch. Not sure if you know already but 3w LEDs are INCREDIBLY powerful.

We also looked into adding a dimming effect and it requires a small computer box that needs to be programmed off a regular PC with C++ code. If you can do that your golden! Still not very expensive we just don't have programming abilities.

 

[nick_76]

Re: Why is my 48" Aquean LED light set up causing my fish to tweak out?

although a little more expensive, Digi-Key has pretty much any electronic part you could want...their catalog dwarfs a phone book...found LEDs for much cheaper elsewhere...prices seem to be all over the place

Im thinking not so much in terms of dimming LEDs, but selectively turning off individuals in an array. total brightness would be a function of what % of total lights are on at a time..to this end, for better resolution you could do more LEDs at a lower brightness rating per diod and still have the same total brightness, but broader control of how many diodes are active at any time.

you could have this control on a simple timer without the use of programming...divide your diodes into banks...for simplification, call them banks A, B, C, D


arrange the diodes as such....or randomly even:
abcdabcdabcdabcd
dcbadcbadcbadcba
cabdcabdcabdcabd
dcbadcbadcbadcba

for a soft start to your lighting, you could have the banks turn on sequentially at timed intervals. you could even use increasing intensities for each bank..IE D bank LEDs are more intense than A bank so as the As come up , then the Bs and so forth the intensity ramps up

conversly, they can do the opposite for power down simulating evening

a simple rotary timer with a set of contacts for each bank would be the simplest form of control (think a PVC cylinder mounted onto your average outlet timer...the timer provides the rotation and calibration for hours each bank is on. apply contacts to the cylinder in relation to how many hours and what time each bank comes on)

given the amount of power needed for the diodes, the timer described above could be used simply to trigger relays to route power to each bank in the array.

I could probably draw this out than ive been able to describe it, if interested PM me. thats something i just thought of while sitting here at work., im sure theres better ways of doing it. We have a spare PLC sitting here in the shop, id love to find a way to make one of those into the "brains" of an aquarium

 

[Addicted2CAs]

Re: Why is my 48" Aquean LED light set up causing my fish to tweak out?

That is awesome info, thanks! My post above is pretty much the extent of my electrical knowledge, I chose the machinist/mechanical route instead! I will certainly be passing this on to my brother who will probably understand this more!
Thanks nick!

 

[nick_76]

Re: Why is my 48" Aquean LED light set up causing my fish to tweak out?

I worked with phased array air defense radars for many years, got out of the army and went to work for boeing as an to repair machine tools and such as an electrician (not to be confused with, say, a utilities electrician)
working on a degree in electronic engineering.

you might say electronics are an interest...

 

[JimA]

Re: Why is my 48" Aquean LED light set up causing my fish to tweak out?

Beamworks on aquatraders, they are not "that" expensive if you are looking for some decent LEDs...