Has anyone done aquarium lighting? There are two purposes for me for this activity.
- To turn the light on and off at a given time every day, so I don’t have to remember to do it.
- I’d like to do something which is more blue white early and late, and during the day, sunlight. Maybe some varying levels such as clouds gently passing.
I know this is a lot for a small fish tank, but I have a lid which has a very nice light apparatus that I can pillage to create a much better one. I’m going to use a Photon as the controller to get easy access to the network, so just keep in mind I’m not on master please.
Thoughts? I’m going to prototype this next week when I get a few minutes. However, given the level of color and blending awareness here, I thought I would get some ideas first.
Going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 WS2812, pry two strips of 6 from the 30 per meter adafruit setup. I also plan to do some palettes which may show off fish colors better as well, but the primary purpose is just to keep their schedule fairly normal.
Thanks.
I did up some lighting for my fish tank a while ago, but focused mainly on blue. I found the most successful thing was to use a palette of blue’s with a noise routine. The main light had to be off for it to show up. Was fun, and then I went onto the next project.
You should bear in mind what type of fish you are keeping (Tropical or Marine) and consequently what type of non-fish livestock you have in the tank (aquatic plants for Tropical or corals/anemones etc for Marine).
If you have a Marine/Reef setup then you need specialist LEDs that produce specific wavelengths of light etc (I’m no expert but I have looked into it a little), similarly for aquatic plants they also need certain light to grow but not as specific as corals etc.
If all you have are plastic plants then go for it 
Hey Peter,
As a former saltwater guy - I would echo the sentiment of beginning with your fish and their needs for light.
The lights you have in your tank already are likely far brighter than the what 2812’s can produce -
If you have saltwater with reef - remember these animals use photosynthesis a lot, so getting close to sunlight will be really nice for them…
I have had my tanks setup with automatic lights and feeders, but it’s not something I would push myself.
Thanks. So, freshwater, small, no real plants now. Keeping it simple with 2 small kids is the goal. I used to have a pretty elaborate freshwater setup, but that was 25 years ago. I may try for that again in the future, but not now.
Nothing more than small colorful fish from the Amazon I would assume right now. Think Danio, Gourami, Tetra, and maybe some sort of bottom feeder, etc. Finding a way to make some of the colors pop is a goal, so adding some blue/purple might be nice. Mostly though, I just want to make sure the fish are comfortable and I don’t forget to turn on/off the light.
I do plan to extend this for control of temp and do PH and other monitoring in the future, but that’s just because I can and will have a Micro sitting mostly unused to do it.