I wasn't actually addressing you, but somewhere early in this thread someone said "I am thinking that the dawn to dusk effect of using a set of 1000K/Deep Blue lights for 3 hours switching to the 6700K lights for 5 then back to the 1000K/Deep Blue lights will achieve this. What do you think?" A delayed reaction, I'll admit, but your description of your friend with the really cool light cycle on his tank (which sounded perfect) reminded me of my original concern when reading about a 3 hour dawn & a 3 hour dusk. Anita ----- Original Message ----- From: Hess, Clay A<mailto:clay.a.hess@boeing.com> To: gsas-member@thekrib.com<mailto:gsas-member@thekrib.com> Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 10:11 PM Subject: RE: [GSAS-Member] Using Actinic/Blue Lights in Freshwater Anita, I am not sure if you are talking about the time I have my lights on or something else. But, I am not trying to simulate any cycle with my fish. The vast majority of my fish were bred in tanks here the states, for who knows how many generations, and I am not sure they would recognize a cycle if shown one now....~~laughing~~. My neighbors tank does simulate the dawn to dusk cycle according to the tropics, specifically the tropical Pacific, since that is where the majority of her fish came from. I don't know how that affects her fish. She might, I have never asked her though. Could be an interesting question though. Clay -----Original Message----- From: A JACOBSON [mailto:amjacobson52@msn.com] Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 9:43 PM To: Greater Seattle Aquarium Society member chat Subject: Re: [GSAS-Member] Using Actinic/Blue Lights in Freshwater I have a little problem with the long dawn / dusk periods, at least from a theoretical standpoint. At the equator dawn & dusk are very short -- the farther away from the equator, the longer the transitional periods. If we're talking about tropical fish, I would think the equatorial model would be closer to what they would naturally encounter. If you had a species only tank, it might be neat to find out how long dawn/dusk lasts in the area they come from, and duplicate that. Those natural moon cycles are incredibly cool, though. Anita ----- Original Message ----- From: Hess, Clay A<mailto:clay.a.hess@boeing.com<mailto:clay.a.hess@boeing.com>> To: gsas-member@thekrib.com<mailto:gsas-member@thekrib.com<mailto:gsas-member@thekrib.com<mailto:gsas-member@thekrib.com>> Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 8:36 PM Subject: RE: [GSAS-Member] Using Actinic/Blue Lights in Freshwater Al, Yes, you are correct. I actually have a combination of a number of various spectrum lights on three different aquariums. Each seems to do well, two of the tanks have the 10,000K lights on them, one is a combo 10,000K/6700K bulb I believe. I do not cycle my lights relative to one another, they all come on in the morning (~5am)and are on til about 11pm at night. I do not currently use CO2 on any of my tanks. And, I do not have a wet/dry filter on any of these tanks at this time, they primarily use back filters. My one 100 gallon tank has, the 10,000K/6700K combo light and a 5000K bulb on one side of it (all from AH supply) and the other side is 5 13 watt compact flourescent lights that replace 5 standard 60 watt incandescent bulbs (put together from Home Depot parts). I flip these two hoods from side to side on the tank about every other month. I really like the look of the fish under the combo light side, the "Home Depot" side is much yellower and not as bright. The "Home Depot" side tends to produce more algae, but, the plants grow faster too. SO,if I flip the two sides back and forth it seems to control the algae better and lets the plants have bursts of growth and then slow periods as well with nothing dying. The fish in this tank include a number of rainbows and tetras that look really good in the combo light, but, not so good under the "Home Depot" lights. This tank has sword plants, crypts, anubias, floating plants and some java fern. This tank has very little algae growth on the walls of the tank too. Another 100 gallon tank has a mix of two 4 foot shop lights (Spectralight bulbs)(from Home Depot again), two 36" bulbs (from The Fish Store in Seattle), one is a 10,000K light, the other is a full spectrum bulb and a 11 watt (~7 bulb)compact flourescent bulb (from Home Depot) at one end. This tank is much darker than my other 100 gallon tank, but, it is also much heavier planted with anubias, java fern and bulbitus. I really like the way my fish with blue colors show up in this tank. I have some peacocks and C. Moorii in this tank that are dynamite to look at. However, my clown loaches do now show well in this tank at all. The plants in this tank grow very slowly, but, I have very little algae build up on the tank walls too and I like the low maitenance of that. I have been experimenting with my other two tanks, a 55 hexagon and another 100 gallon tank and cannot get a combination of lighting that works well at slowing the algae growth in them. Part of the reason for this I believe is the amount of natural light these two tanks see. Soooo, I am not sure it would be helpful to explain what the lighting is on these two, other than to say, neither tank has a 10,000K light on them. Finally, your question about shifting the lighting to simulate dawn to dusk sounds interesting from a visual perspective. I have a neighbor with a system that does this on her reef tank. It is computer controlled and simulates the moon phases, as well as the daylight hours throughout the year. Major money in her system, but, it is cool to watch with her corals and such....the corals and other live critters do react to the changes in light and you can see them do it. On a plant tank I am not sure you can see any reaction other than the fish finding a sleeping place for the night. I would like to hear how this all goes for you when you have it up and running the way you would like to have it. Clay -----Original Message----- From: carrera206@comcast.net<mailto:carrera206@comcast.net<mailto:carrera206@comcast.net<mailto:carrera206@comcast.net>> [mailto:carrera206@comcast.net] Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 11:59 AM To: gsas-member@thekrib.com<mailto:gsas-member@thekrib.com<mailto:gsas-member@thekrib.com<mailto:gsas-member@thekrib.com>> Subject: [GSAS-Member] Using Actinic/Blue Lights in Freshwater Thanks for all the responses. Clay- What exactly is your light config? Are you using the 10000K lights and if so what is the color cast (I think it is a bluish white)? It sounded like you used the 10000K or 10000K/Deep Blue combo lights with a 6700K or 5000K light. Is this correct? I am currently using the AH supply retrofit kit 4 x 96 watt CF bulbs. One pair of 5000K and one pair of 6700K. I run the lights on a cycle of the pair of 5000K lights turning on for 5 hrs or so and the pair of 6700K lights taking over for another 5 hours with some overlap with all 4 of the lights on for 0.5 hrs or so. I like the change that occurs with the different lights but although the CRI is quite high with the 5000K & 6700K lights I wondered if the 10000K or lights might make the fish look better. I tend to like a bluer light despite my having pretty white lights now. I am thinking that the dawn to dusk effect of using a set of 1000K/Deep Blue lights for 3 hours switching to the 6700K lights for 5 then back to the 1000K/Deep Blue lights will achieve this. What do you think? I don't have a lot of plants other than annubus and a couple of java fern, but they do not grow much. I believe that I don't have enough CO2 in the water because of my wet/dry trickle filter and my main interest is the fish. Thanks again, Al _______________________________________________ GSAS-Member mailing list GSAS-Member@thekrib.com<mailto:GSAS-Member@thekrib.com<mailto:GSAS-Member@thekrib.com<mailto:GSAS-Member@thekrib.com>> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member<http://lists.thekr<http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member<http://lists.thekr> ib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member> _______________________________________________ GSAS-Member mailing list GSAS-Member@thekrib.com<mailto:GSAS-Member@thekrib.com<mailto:GSAS-Member@thekrib.com<mailto:GSAS-Member@thekrib.com>> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member<http://lists.thekr<http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member<http://lists.thekr> ib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member> _______________________________________________ GSAS-Member mailing list GSAS-Member@thekrib.com<mailto:GSAS-Member@thekrib.com> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member<http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member> _______________________________________________ GSAS-Member mailing list GSAS-Member@thekrib.com<mailto:GSAS-Member@thekrib.com> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member<http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member> _______________________________________________ GSAS-Member mailing list GSAS-Member@thekrib.com http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member