Light timers

[TAXMAN]

I am looking for a good but cheap :lol: lighting timer. It will need about 4 stages. 3 will work though. I am going to run 1 250-400MH and 3 T-5's. Moonlight may come later.

Thanks for the input.

[denniss]

You can buy at Home Depot a Christmas light timer with 6 imputs that works great for 19 bucks.

[TAXMAN]

Thanks, I'll check it out.

[TexasState]

I might have a timer that you can have. I also have 5 bare moonlight bulbs if I can find it. Usually you'll want a different timer for each lightsetup so you can have the sunrise/sunset effect.

[TAXMAN]

Thanks. I will get them from you if you can find them. And I did check a Home Depot. But they dont have one that will do 4 stages of lighting. Just timers for 1 set of lights. I figured that I will have to get 3 timers to have 4 stages. 1 of them for the 1st stage will turn a relay on/off to turn off the last stage and turn on the moonlights at the same time. Vice/Versa in the morning. The rest will fall in between.

Thanks TexasState.

[OrionN]

Each light (400 W MH) draw lots of current. You really wanted a heavy duty timer that take lots of current or it will fail quickly. You also need your light on different outlet, different circuit really so that you won't trip your fuse. I have a large tank with three circuits dedicated for my tank only (four id I count my 220 V circuit for my chiller. I have three pumps one on each circuit and 6 lights. I devided these light and pumps out so that one or even two circuit trip, it won't crash my tank.
I would have one timer for each light. You can get a 15 amp timer at HD for about 20.00.
Minh

[TAXMAN]

Yea. I am planning on a 250w MH , 3 28w T-5's, 1 return pump and 1 skimmer pump. I am going to figure out my load and then put a 20 amp breaker in if I need it.

I am planning on useing a total of 3 timers for the lights though. And I dont think I have anything else running on this circuit.

ok. Figured the Amp load. All of these listed items and giving a generous amount of wattage for the pumps it is less than 4 amps. I figured for 450 total watts. At 1000 watts it is just over 8 amps. So I should be fine.

[OrionN]

You should have GFCI circuit for your tank. Sometime these circuit tripped due to various problems in addition to drawing excessive current. Try to anticipate this and make sure taht your tank won't crash due to this problem.
I would have at least two water movement devices, each on separate circuit.
Minh