Tilting light fixtures? An idea...

[KenRexford]

So, as I was looking at my corals and lights, it occurred to me that if my AI primes were on a very slowly moving motor, sort of like what an automatic fish food dispenser or a mechanical timer uses, the AI Primes could all sort of point slightly toward the west in the morning, ending in the evening pointing slightly to the East, and thereby not just mimic sunrise and sunset but also reach into some nooks in the rocks that otherwise might miss out except maybe when the T5’s come on. The night cycle would be weird, with the moon traversing the sky backwards, if there are moonlights, but that’s fine. Anyone ever try something like that? Some sort of slow tilting motor setup?

 

[X-37B]

They make a light mover for hydroponics I have used before but not on a tank.
I think you would need a very long tank to have it mimic the suns trajectory.
I would be curious if anyone has done it on a small tank scale though.

 

[nezw0001]

I think the idea of tilt the lights on the short axis of the tank is a neat idea. What if you did it on a faster time period than 24 hrs. Would it help reduce shawdowing?

 

[KenRexford]

Imagine the BRSTV spectrum analysis! Best might be a motor that wobbles the light fixture around a circle. No more hot spots. Now, a hot donut, with a more even total spread. Plus, a small perhaps but maybe useful increase in under-overhang light penetration.

Might even have an impact on growth pattern? Thinking plants. Seeds started indoors tend to be long, tall, and skinny, straining straight up. Outside plants tend to be fuller plants. Well, if the lighting in a reef tank were to wobble or move or tilt, the change in direction on a regular basis might logically have the same effect of broadening corals. My one candy cane colony looks like a table to a degree. If the light source were tilting/moving/wobbling, maybe it would result in the candy cane coral looking more like a tree, with new polyps feeling free to point in directions that are more space-oriented than light-oriented. A fuller tree of polyps. I wonder if you compared aquarium sticks to natural sea sticks and thought of this idea would one notice a difference?

 

[BackToTheReef]

I was thinking of doing something similar (almost but not quite) since I was going to be running a metric ton of kessils over my tank. Through ramping them up and down to mimic sunrise/sunset mostly but I suppose you could also do it with intensity throughout the day.

Granted I just wanted to do it more for visual effect for me if I was watching the tank in the morning or evening but not sure if it would have any benefit for the tank itself.

 

[Chibils]

I've dreamt of doing this for about a decade, but it would involve a lot of specialized equipment and planning so I never got to it. I'd love to see a setup for it someday.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Or you could just try a good halide pendant and halide bulb. I don’t think you would see much of a difference from just moving one light around from the same pivot point. If a tank can benefit from it I would dare to say a halide would make everything better. If a halide isn’t the answer then just adding another fixture is the next best bet.

 

[Chibils]

Or you could just try a good halide pendant and halide bulb. I don’t think you would see much of a difference from just moving one light around from the same pivot point. If a tank can benefit from it I would dare to say a halide would make everything better. If a halide isn’t the answer then just adding another fixture is the next best bet.

That's how I was envisioning this.