how does one dim??

[that novice guy]

i will be making a new light that would be fully dimmable it will consist of 24 cree 1:2 ratio and 2 48 inch vho bulbs and i would be using the coralvue 660 dimmable and how would i dimm it? with the use of an neptune controller the tank is only 4'L 1'H 2'W

some other questions
*what bulb should be used
*how high
*relectors or no reflectors


and its all going on this tank or poor kids build :wink:

 

[revsgirl]

:bump2:

 

[cdangel0]

Never having tried it before - please take this response with a grain of salt....

How about wiring the ballast up to a household dimmer switch? Like the kind you'd use for a chandelier - run the wires in to a blue junction box, hook it up to a dimmer swtich, mouth the dimmer switch to the juntion box, then mount it all to the leg of the stand.

 

[that novice guy]

Never having tried it before - please take this response with a grain of salt....

How about wiring the ballast up to a household dimmer switch? Like the kind you'd use for a chandelier - run the wires in to a blue junction box, hook it up to a dimmer swtich, mouth the dimmer switch to the juntion box, then mount it all to the leg of the stand.

well the probem is that i dont have a chandaleir:sad:

 

[Jake1]

well the probem is that i dont have a chandaleir:sad:

You don't need a chandelier, they sale the dimmers at home improvement stores.

 

[that novice guy]

that would be cool but do you know how to connect them to a neptunes system

 

[cdangel0]

Plug the ballast in to the controller

 

[jedimasterben]

Never having tried it before - please take this response with a grain of salt....

How about wiring the ballast up to a household dimmer switch? Like the kind you'd use for a chandelier - run the wires in to a blue junction box, hook it up to a dimmer swtich, mouth the dimmer switch to the juntion box, then mount it all to the leg of the stand.

That would most likely destroy the fixture. Ballasts need to be made to be dimmable like that.


I honestly don't know much about VHO/T5HO, but I do know that ATI bulbs are some of the best you can get, and LEDs will give much more fluorescence than any T5 bulb can. I would do 4x T5HO and 24x royal blue Cree XT-E at 1000ma or more. For which T5 bulbs, I wouldn't know exactly what to recommend, maybe start with two Aquablue Special and two True Actinic so you have more violet output for much better growth. Just know that the royal blue LEDs will pump out a lot of light and a lot of PAR, too.


EDIT: looking up the Coralvue 660 a bit more, I still don't know how it is dimmable other than with their dimming piece, the Solar 1000. However, it will only dim VHO bulbs and not T5HO, so my recommendation for bulbs above is moot.

 

[that novice guy]

That would most likely destroy the fixture. Ballasts need to be made to be dimmable like that.


I honestly don't know much about VHO/T5HO, but I do know that ATI bulbs are some of the best you can get, and LEDs will give much more fluorescence than any T5 bulb can. I would do 4x T5HO and 24x royal blue Cree XT-E at 1000ma or more. For which T5 bulbs, I wouldn't know exactly what to recommend, maybe start with two Aquablue Special and two True Actinic so you have more violet output for much better growth. Just know that the royal blue LEDs will pump out a lot of light and a lot of PAR, too.


EDIT: looking up the Coralvue 660 a bit more, I still don't know how it is dimmable other than with their dimming piece, the Solar 1000. However, it will only dim VHO bulbs and not T5HO, so my recommendation for bulbs above is moot.

thank you for the help

 

[cdangel0]

That would most likely destroy the fixture. Ballasts need to be made to be dimmable like that.

Original post said the ballast was dimmable. I merely provided the means to make use of the functionality built in to the ballast. I would not reccomend however dimming the VHOs - reduces their life span.

I'm not familiar with the neptune controller - but if it functions like my Reef Keeper it's merely going to turn the ballast on/off you'll need another means to adjust intensity. If neptune provides that functionality - I'm selling my RK2.

 

[Kworker]

That tank, you made it?

 

[jedimasterben]

Original post said the ballast was dimmable. I merely provided the means to make use of the functionality built in to the ballast. I would not reccomend however dimming the VHOs - reduces their life span.

I'm not familiar with the neptune controller - but if it functions like my Reef Keeper it's merely going to turn the ballast on/off you'll need another means to adjust intensity. If neptune provides that functionality - I'm selling my RK2.

A ballast needs to be made to be dimmed a certain way - I'm assuming that the Coralvue ballast is dimmed via a 0-10v digital signal. If you use a standard home outlet with a dimmer switch the ballast will be destroyed.

You need the ALC for the Reefkeeper to have 0-10v dimming capability, I believe the Apex needs a similar piece (but it may have two built in). Reef Angel has two of them standard, and is cheaper, to boot.

 

[that novice guy]

That tank, you made it?

sorry for such the late reply but this tank has had some weaird history i think. first it was made in university of georgia for a science project 7 years ago on coral growth then it was passed down to this guy named jim and he used it for proagating anemones and he showed me a picture when it was up and running and it was fulled with rbta it was so cool and he did that for a while and made a ton of money, the guy who had it before him wanted it back because he wanted to redo the tank and make his own money too but i didnt understand why he wouldnt just make another so he got it back then relized that he didnt remeber like it use to be so he put it on craigslist i found it but didnt have the money at the time for it so he saved it for me but he realy wanted to trade it for a cold intake for his car but he wanted to see somone young go into the hobby to i got it for 150 instead of 200 so i was like heck yea so now im turning it into an anemone propagatioin tank

so yea no i didnt make it tho:smile: