lights in motion

[CoryDude]

Anyone ever heard of this or seen a DIY on something like this? I did some initial googling to see if anyone makes something similar, but no luck so far.

I'd like to mount DE mh bulbs w/reflectors on some kind of pulley or track that would allow them to be slowly moved across the top of the tank from side to side. Each light would only need to move aprox 18" over 8-10 hrs and would reset after each day's operation to the original position. This would seem to mimic the sun's progression across the sky and provide more even light distribution across your rockwork.

Does this sound like a good idea to anyone, or am I pulling monkeys out of my read-end? Any thoughts or suggestion are appreciated.

[Zoofan]

I think it sounds interesting, would seem more natural then having light hit from the same angle all day everyday. I am sure you could find a way to do it. Sounds like a good erector set project.

Mike

[SoLiD]

I think it has been done before... kind of like you explained.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZCnrcI32aw

[LoneStar]

It has been done before, kinda. The setups I've seen have the light moving the distance over the tank in just a minute or two....then reveresed direction. It would go back and forth all day long. When Alex owned Wolf Reef, he had this type of setup on his frag tank.

Now you might be able to get a slower moving motor, but I'm not sure. If you can get ahold of a few metal halide setups fairly cheap (or if you have a few already), you can always just use timers to turn them on/off in sequential order as the 'sun' moves across your tank. That way you technically only run 1 halide over the 8 hours a day.

[patman]

IMO unless your tank is long and the trolley moves slowly, it's not really going to be any real help as far as simulating the movement of the sun. as a matter of fact, if the tank is only a 4' or so, I'm not even sure you'd even be able to tell that it's moving really.

[Darth-Tater]

Wolf Reef had a light on a trolly cable pulling across a long tank. 3 yrs ago. It seemed to work ok.

David

[phrog]

The hardware for installing a drawer might work as your frame for the moving light.

[seamonkey2]

easy to do, Felipe had this exact set up in the back.

easy and cheap DIY, as long as your canopy is tall enough

Jose

[tropicana]

On ebay they have "Light Mover" for around $80-$90 that move 4 or 6ft. They can move 6ft in 20mins then back in another 20mins. so 40mins all the way there and back.

[CoryDude]

I kinda figured it had been done before. The youtube clip is close to how I would do it. But, I'd have the light taking the full 8hrs to move 18". My grandfather had an old watch display case that had a motor that was geared very low to rotate the watches around the case. It could pull the side off a house, but it'd take 6 hrs to do it.

Thanks. Everyone's suggestion are well appreciated. I'll start looking at these and see if I can draw somthing up.