Light shimmer

[gotfish]

I've always read that you don't get shimmer with fluorescent lighting, but I have it. I never really noticed it before, but I was looking at the tank this morning when the light first came on. They've been on for an hour now and it's still there. Any ideas why this would be? At first I thought it may be from the lights just coming on and maybe the intensity wasn't up, but I'd thought they would be gone by now.

 

[fatboyt123]

By fluorescent or we talking t5's and is that the only lighting you have on the tank?

 

[ajnweb]

Do you have any supplemental LED lights? They would cause a shimmer if they are intense enough.

 

[gotfish]

It's a nova extreme pro. No supplemental lighting and no LED's. I took a video with my camera, but it's pretty hard to see it once it was uploaded to photobucket. I can make it out. When it first starts, you can see it in the water up near the light then on the sand you can see it as well.

 

[fatboyt123]

tank is looking great.

I dont think that you dont get the shimmer from t5's but i think that it is that you dont see as much as you do with MH

 

[ajnweb]

I have a nova extreme pro as well and only see light shimmer when I turn on my LED powerbrite strips. I wonder in the reflector has a few dings in it concentracting the light and making it act like a point source light from a few spots?

 

[gotfish]

No dings in any reflectors, but that's an interesting theory. It's the whole tank that has the shimmer. This is the first time I've ever seen it. I wonder if it's the added depth of the water cause there is a definite difference on the sand from the 75g and the 125g. Even though it's only 2 inches deeper, the sand doesn't appear as bright.

 

[fatboyt123]

do the fixture cover the whole tank.If it was on the 75 then it would only 4' but on the 125 it would be 6'.Maybe with it not covering the whole tank it causes it to make the "shimmer" effect.More area to cover and not enough light to cover it.My tank will have the "shimmer" effect and for the time being i am only using 2 freshwater tank hoods and a 24" PC. Dont worry no corals in the tank just fish.

 

[gotfish]

It is just a 48" and therefore doesn't cover the whole tank like you said, but that doesn't explain why it's showing up in the whole tank. You can't really see it in the vid, but it's up near the top of the tank right underneath the light fixture. I'm just wondering if anyone has ever seen this before and if so was there something wrong with the fixture or bulbs that caused it? If not and it's because of like what you said along with the depth of the tank, then it kind of sucks that it will be gone when I throw the ATI powermodule on there.

 

[fatboyt123]

I was just guessing.You never know you might some how get it the the ATI.

 

[Myteemouse]

you got lots of surface agitation it WILL warp the light going though it..
You just got enough wattage and surface agitation to warp florescent bulb enough to notice this effect..

 

[TWallace]

All lights have a shimmer, but it's much more noticable with MH and other point source bulbs. I still see shimmer in my tank after the MH turn off and only the T5 actinics are on.