Coralife Power Center

[Altohombre]

Is this what you big time reefers use to control your lights? This is pretty much all I have seen, but I know there are a couple versions. I just bought 36" Nova Extreme Pro lights so that will have 6 lights with it that will need controlled. Which of the power centers do you recommend to use so that I can have them come on and off at certain times and do all that neato stuff?

Matt

 

[RyanG]

I use the Six dollar cheapo timers from walmart to run my lights on my freshwater tank.

 

[reeffreak]

Mine only worked right for about a month.I had the dual timer and one was moving faster than the other or get stuck.I consider them junk and use regular timers now.Someday,I'll get me a real controller like the Aqua Jr.

 

[Altohombre]

i am reading about them now and I know the Zilla version seems to suck. There is also the Aqualife and the Coralife. Are all of these bad? Is there any that you recommend. I am away from the house at tough times so I would like to get something that would turn them on at a certain time and switch to night mode at another. Otherwise I am running lights on from 3-10 everyday which is an awkward pattern.

 

[Bifferwine]

I used to run the digital Coralife one on my old 55 gallon, it worked fine, but constantly lost time and had to be reset every 2 weeks or so.

Right now I don't have my lights on a timer. I want to, but I don't know if I have to use like a heavy duty timer because of how strong my lights are or if it'll just start a fire or something if I try to use a Coralife one again.

 

[Altohombre]

yeah I am hearing about this Coralife one that it has been known to catch fire. WTF, I would think this would be a concern for pulling it off the market. I wonder if they have made updates to it.

 

[Piggy]

I have the coralife timer and it works great. Hasn't lost any time.

 

[Altohombre]

I just read a lot of bad stuff on the Coralife timer and it sticking on. The real bad stuff was the cases where I heard it caught on fire.

I have heard good things about the 7 Day Heavy Duty Grounded Timers that you can get at most big stores.

 

[Piggy]

I've had mine for over a year know. Plus other reefers I know has them and never had a problem.

 

[bjohanson1234]

I have two of the coralife digital timers. No problems. I would assume that the ones that caught fire might have gotten wet. I have a cheapo power strip that almost caught fire because of getting wet. Learned real quick to keep them away from splash in the salt water hobby.

Also, mechanical timers, in my experience, tend to be less accurate and more likely to stick on.

Brian

 

[hobbyguy]

coralife digital timers. are not bad but there is a note with the model that people don't understand some times
there is different settings
1 is auto
,random,
off,
on, i have used one of these and own one
there are 4 const power plugins which are great then there is the timer side but the problem is
2 yellow plugs (for daylight)2 blue plugs (for night time ) the note is in the auto or on settings the daytime light can be programed at any time of day or week on and off settings after the daylights come on *note this is both daytime plugs at same time meaning if you want blue atnics on 30 mins before white this will not work
after both lights come on and timers runs it cycle
then when the off time comes
what ever is in the blue night time plugs then are running for the remaining time till daytime lights are to cycle back on this info came straight from the manufacture of this product
other features are it has built in clock,battery back up and can be used as a wave maker for different times off and on this is a nice product but has a flaw for 2 or more lights to run at different times if wanting different times for lights like on blue atnic at say 5pm then 5:30 daylights (white) then off at say 12am for white and for soft power down of blues at 12:30 am than 1 hour wait then moons on at 1:30 and off at 5:30 am then you need to go with the corallife dual timer strip this will give you more functions for you likes

some some light for ones that don't know about this product
keep up the good work living reefs
love this forum

 

[Gooseman]

I run the Nova Extreme T5 with a coralife timer and it works great, lites come on & go off when they are suppose to.

 

[jhnrb]

I use an aquacontroller jr for my main system and radio shack or grasslin digital timers in the shed. There is also an 8 outlet strip with controller that controls each outlet for the aquacontroller jr. you might want to look into that one. the aqua controller also provides you a true moon phase where the moon cycle is based on 15 degrees north and adjusts year around as the moon cycle is different than day light and darkness by 50 minutes each 24 hour period. hope this helps. good luck.