Question about eLightMaster settings

[Anonymous]

I'm a little confused about the Offset/Bracket setting.

I enter 30 in the box next to "offset" (for dusk/dawn simulation).

I then click on "Offset" and it changes to "Bracket". I enter 480 so that my lights will come on around 3:00PM

I want to follow the photoperiod, moonlight, and tidal patterns of a reef (any reef would be fine I supose) with a reduce photoperiod of about 7 hours. I want the photoperiod to run from 3:00 PM EST till 10:00PM.

I want 30 minute dusk/dawn from my actinics. Then bring the halides on one at a time. And reverse daylight for my refugium.

Thanks!

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Another thing. My light 1 just turned off even though the program says it's on. It's an Icecap 660 ballast.

Is the electronic ballast causing a problem?

 

[Bill-e]

Here's how offset/bracket works

Lets assume you want to simulate dusk with your actinics, here's how to do it:

Assign Light 1 to your longest duration lamp..normally actinics.

If you enter a "30" in the "offset" entry field and then select "bracket" by clicking on the "offset/bracket" button, then Light 1 will turn on 30 min prior to sunrise and turn off 30 min after sunset.

Now suppose you want to offset your lighting period so that you can view the tank after you get hime from work. Here's what you do. Again, assign Light 1 as your longest duration lamp. Enter the offset in the offset entry field, an entry of 360 will delay the rise/set by 6 hours. Make sure the offset/bracket button says "offset".

Assign Lamp 2 as your next longest duration light. Lets say it's the Left side MH and you want it to turn on 30 min after the actinics. Just select "bracket" and enter "-30" into the offset entry field. Light 2 will now turn on 30 min after Light 1 and turn off 30 min before Light 1.

Continue this scheme for the rest of your lights.

As you can see, Light 1 has an important role to play here. If Light 1 is set to "bracket", then it and any other light also set to bracket will bracket around the unmodified sunrise/set times.

If you set Light 1 to offset and you set any other light to bracket, the bracket light will operate off the offset of Light 1, allowing you to use the Offset feature to adjust the viewing hours, and the bracket feature to simulate sunrise/set.