lunar cycle (light wave)?????

[mad reefer]

Whats up everbody,
I have a 150 reef and have 3 802 powerheads and one rio 2100 powerhead.
My lights are 2 250 watt 5500k halides and two 100 watt actinics. I have lots of corals and fish but have heard a lightwave for lunar cycle it operates the powerheads and the lights does this help the system??and how do you know that your lights are dimmable?.

 

[mad reefer]

anyone or are you all new at this???

 

[up north hermit]

Metal Halides are NOT dimmable. Are your actinics NO or VHO? In order for them to be dimmable the ballast has to be factory tweaked ( Oh I know, I don't know the correct term! ), and be dimmable to begin with. The IceCap 660's are, but I don't know about the others (and there are many).
For instance, I have the dimmable version of IceCap's 660 ballast. But before I can actually use it on a dimmer, I have to send it in to the factory (at no charge BTW) to be modified, or whatever they do. My problem is what do I do for lights in the meantime???
That's the only thing that's keeping me from getting a dimmer. I have done plenty of research. You can get really "high tech" with this stuff. Some will run your lights, powerheads, random intensity of the light, "sunny" days, "stormy" days, etc.
HTH
Hermit

 

[jond]

If you order a new 660 now, it comes equiped to handle the dimmer. You can also accomplish dawn/dusk by using seperate timmers on serperate lights. (i.e. no's and then halides)

 

[up north hermit]

Yeah, that's what I was told. I got the "new" ballast 3 months ago. But when I went to order the dimmer I was told that if my ballast doesn't say "dimmable" on it, you MUST send it in.
HTH
Hermit