High Tide Aquatics

track lights

yardartist

yardartist

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Anyone had or witnessed lights that tracked from end to end of a tank? Does it work with all the salt spray? Thinking of mounting track on the ceiling and hanging a heat sink down closer to tank level.

Would like 16 hours from one end to other lights on, then reset in 8 hours of darkness. This would help the spot effect of LED by moving them in a path during the lighting cycle rather than always in one position.
 
I have not seen anything as described but there's the "Light Mover" option from SLS; interesting but seem to work better on long tanks; wish they had a 3 or 4 footer with super slow motion to mimic sunrise/sunset with a single reflector.

Fixing a track strip on the ceiling I don't think will corrode but inside a canopy or close to the water surface it will and soon.
 
Our friends at Pacific Garden Supply have a light mover set up over their reef tank. They sell the movers too. If you wanna go visit sometime, lmk or just call them up.
 
That is it Mario. 4 feet in one 'day' cycle. The one's I have seen move faster.

Jim, you think they are open tomorrow? Not sure how but I have the day off.

I know, this sounds like a bigger tank than what I have. Just considering.

Thanks Tony, I'll see out how Jeremy's worked out.
 
I have a light mover on my 6' tank.
It goes back and fourth about every 2 minutes.
I figure that I am eliminating the third MH fixture that I would be burning without it.
 
It would be really nice but REALLY nice to have one track moving super slow to mimic Sun's movement; it can be "kind" of achieved with a timer to run the light mover motor at certain intervals/time-on but I don't know if the motor would welcome the intermittent cycle.
A light mover for large tanks makes so much sense to me but for those of us having space limitations...
Well I'll keep on dreaming that one.
 
I am not mechanically minded, but creative. Does anyone know if a grandfather clock mechanism could be used to click the little 'cart' holding the pedant down the track click by click during the day? Each day someone would need to reset the weight, if I am remembering the old cabinet clock correctly.
 
Yes, stationary T-5's. soon to be LED's... :)
2x250MH are on for 6 hours.
http://ericdo.com/pictures/BAR/Tank%20tour_120609/Jar/D2X_6556.jpg
 
xcaret said:
It would be really nice but REALLY nice to have one track moving super slow to mimic Sun's movement; it can be "kind" of achieved with a timer to run the light mover motor at certain intervals/time-on but I don't know if the motor would welcome the intermittent cycle.
A light mover for large tanks makes so much sense to me but for those of us having space limitations...
Well I'll keep on dreaming that one.
Click to expand...

That'd be tricky. Typically the light mover motor stays idle for 30 seconds once you turn it on, then it begins moving. So I guess if you could program it to turn on for say 32 seconds every 30 minutes it could work...
 
Matt given there are actually more then one light rail (mover) company out now, which one are you talking about?
 
Went to Neptune's today and they too have a light mover with couple reflectors on; still got me dizzy due to such fast moving back and forth.
 
Mario, my Dad is looking at his shop back East to see if he can come up with a turning mechanism to move the lights so they do not sit in one place with the cone of each color stationary. With my next tank plans a circle will be better than a long track.

Thanks everyone for offering info.
 
Assuming (yes, I know!) that it's a cog type system, couldn't you just file off most of the drive teeth to slow it down? If it's a worm gear type that wouldn't work of course.
 
I've seen movers for hydroponic applications that go circular by the way...pretty sure they still have one on display at Berkeley secret garden on university by the freeway.
 
Those are called Sun Circles, at least, that used to be the brand being sold. I'm sure more make those.
 
I would imagine that anything that spins would have to have an electrical connector that would not be to happy around a salty environment. Maybe something could be set up to do a semicircle and then reverse itself. Then the light could have a normal cord.
 
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