Lighting Background informations

Day and night

Light is energy and this energy is used by and in nature in many ways. The first thing you notice in nature is that it is not always bright and certainly not always equally bright. Due to the spherical shape of the earth, about half of the globe lies in its own shadow. Fortunately, due to the earth's rotation, this is only the case for about half of the day. The sunlight as such is more or less always the same! But because of the different angles of incidence on the atmosphere and the earth's surface, only a part of it arrives. Also the atmosphere itself provides for different changes of the light. During the day and also during the year the light changes in every biotope (except in caves). These changes include intensity, direction, and spectral composition.

Lighting versus sunlight

We design the lighting with our Panta Sun luminaires. They are available in two technically different versions. The difference is in the orientation of the illuminants, one is operated with linear arrangements of the LEDs and the other with LEDs arranged in a planar manner. Common to both is the mixture of light from individual LEDs of different colors. By mixing the individual light colors, it is possible to create a very natural light scene. Furthermore, we distinguish between a freshwater variant and a saltwater variant. This is due to the depth of the biotopes. Seawater biotopes have a much higher transparency of the water, so that the lighting must be able to simulate greater water depths. As a result, the filtering effect of the water has a particular impact on the spectral composition of the light.

Variability of light

The course of the day with twilight, sunrise, daylight, sunset and twilight again can be displayed in all its nuances. Not only the corresponding brightness, but also the correct light color is displayed. Of course, this also applies to scenes such as moon phases, clouds, thunderstorms and even a midnight sun can be displayed in the aquarium. The daily cycles (24h), the moon phases (28 days) and the seasons (365 days) represent the basic rhythms.

The „biology“ of light

It has been shown that the perfect light display leads to significant behavioral changes in aquarium animals. For example, startle reactions to the sudden switching on and off of the light are no longer an issue. It has also been shown that the aggressiveness of single individuals is significantly reduced, as the stability of territorial boundaries is much higher. Likewise, synchronization of light-dependent processes, such as the spawning of stony corals, is now possible. The spawning rhythm of many fishes is often also oriented to the phases of the moon, because the brood-caring parents also depend on (moon) light at night. The visual effect that an aquarium illuminated in this way offers the observer is in no way comparable to that of traditional aquarium lighting. The image of the artificial biotope changes throughout the course of the day, offering ever new insights into the aesthetics of an aquarium and the behavior of its inhabitants.

Software and electronics „create“ nature

With Panta Rhei's biotope programs, the light in your aquarium behaves exactly like the on-site biotope you want to recreate. No matter if it is a billabong in Australia, an atoll in the South Seas, the Rio Xingu in Brazil or a salmon river on Vancouver Island. We provide you with the complete daily, lunar and annual phases of the corresponding region or you use the options of the live weather mode, with the help of which you can transfer the real weather data of a biotope to your aquarium.