ProfiLuxSimu LED Sun|Moon

[spiritflyer]

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying a moonlight unit. No I see there is also a unit with sunlight and thunder.

I have got 2 HQI lamps 150W and 4x T5 56W (non dimmable) above the tank.

In case of sunrise or thunder, is it neccesary that the T5's are dimmed of turned off?
Does Profilux do all of that?

So my question is, is it wise to buy a Sun/Moon Simu LED or is it better in my case to only buy a Moonlight?

Hope you guys understand what I mean.

Grtz, Chris

[BigAl07]

Chris I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that when you say Thunder you in fact mean Lightning. We all want to integrate the sound of thunder into our scenario and are trying to come up with easier ways of doing it.

In case of sunrise or thunder, is it neccesary that the T5's are dimmed of turned off?
Does Profilux do all of that?

It's not a requirement but it makes both scenarios much better if all other lights are off.

Does Profilux do all of that?

Yes it sure does and more if you want it to. Some people have it turn their programmable pumps to FULL/HIGH during the storm to simulate rough waters of a storm.

So my question is, is it wise to buy a Sun/Moon Simu LED or is it better in my case to only buy a Moonlight?

I'd say by all means go with the GHL Simu LED and let that be your moonlight (accurate to your location), sunrise, sunset, and Lightning all in one neat compact unit.

[spiritflyer]

Hey BigAl07,

tnx for your response!

I'm sorry, I meant Lightning, I don't mind if I don't hear thunder

Ok then, so if I have a sunrise, should I then after that turn on my first T5 and so on, till all my light are on?

Also a question about the moonlight. My light go off around 1 am. Usually the moon is already high in the sky then.
If I set the moonlight accurate to my location, the moonlight will already be on, if my other lights are also still on.
Or is that adjustable with the moonlight?

Pff hard to type that in english :P

[BigAl07]

You're typing is great probably better than mine and English is my first language (really only language unfortunately).

I'm not at home at the moment but if memory serves me correctly I set a "programmable logic" to state something like "If thunderstorm YES then lights OFF". You may have to dig around to find this like I said I'm not in front of my ProfiLux at the moment. What this PL does is when the lightning/storm is triggered (manually or otherwise) it turns off whatever lights you have attached to that PL. Once the storm is over it turns the lights back on. The beauty of the Simu system is that it will slowly dim this device and then slowly ramp it back up once the storm is over. Here's what I mean:

Let's say the "Storm" is a 9-minute storm. Don't quote me on this but this is my "assumption" to how the logic works. 12:00am storm initiated, Main Lights Off, Simu starts faint flash and starts slowly dimming. As dimming increases so do "flashes" in brightness and intensity. After approximately 1/3 of the total storm (12:00 - 12:03) the lights are all dimmed completely (if you have 100% darkness or whatever it's called selected) and lighting is at it's most frequent and brightest point. This continues for the central 1/3 of the storm (12:04- 12:06). For the last portion of the "Storm" the scenario is reversed with the Simu slowly getting brighter, lightning getting less bright and less intense up until the storm is over and then whatever the MAIN lights were previously is again reached. This mimics the storm approaching, FULL storm, and then the storm departing away.

re: Moon simulation - If I remember correctly the Moonlight is on a 24hr cycle so whatever the moon is at your current location this is what the simu device will mimic. If it happens to be FULL MOON at your location and the moon is HIGH in the sky at 3pm then your simu device will be mimicking FULL MOON at that time regardless of what your other lights are doing. I don't know how "adjustable" this feature is but if you don't like it I'm pretty sure you simply un-check "Moon" in the PLC setup of the simu device. I like the fact that it replicates the exact phase and position of the moon to my location. It's very cool like that

If I can help any more please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

Allen

[spiritflyer]

Hey Allen,

tnx for your detailed explanation!
It sounds very cool, like how you discribe it :P

However, I have non-dimmabele T5's So it's on of off.
And I have 2 HQI lamps 150W, wich cannot be controlled with Profilux .
So I guess they stay on during a thunderstorm. Don't know if the lightning is even visable then,

I see how the mooncycle works, it's pretty awsome how the Profilux computer can simulate the real cycle.
However in a real life cycle also the sunlight is pretty much gone when the moon apears.
In my case, the sun above my tank is still very much on as the 'real' moon is high in the sky
Well maybe that doesn't even matter. The rest of the night moonlight will be visable to the animals.

[BigAl07]

You’re very welcome. I try to be as detailed as possible in order to make sure we’re on the same page.

On my last tank I had the same set-up that you’re describing. 2x 150w MH, 4x54w T5’s. My main lights weren’t dimmable at all. On/Off was my only option but that’s just fine. When the “Storm” starts you’ll want to program the ProfiLux to turn main lights OFF. Then when the storm is over it turns all main lights back ON. That’s of course unless they were off to begin with then they would remain off. It still dims the simu stick to simulate the storm approaching and departing.

Keep in mind that the moon is up high in the sky during the day a good portion of the year we just don’t see it. The same goes for the simulated moon with ProfiLux. If the moon position is HIGH then the ProfiLux will turn on the simu device the required intensity to match the current moon phase. It’s a nice feature that you “set and forget”.