Realistic lighting?

[The Bungulo]

can I buy a lighting set that has a timer and slowly switches from moonlighting at night to regular light in the day?
thanks in advance.

 

[Crabs McJones]

can I buy a lighting set that has a timer and slowly switches from moonlighting at night to regular light in the day?
thanks in advance.

All depends on what lighting you're looking to use. LED T5 Metal Halide. A good majority of LED setups come with these features built in. What is your budget and preference to lighting type? What kinds of corals are you looking to keep and what size tank?

 

[mfinn]

Led lighting is the way to go.
Many come with the ability to program exactly what you are looking for.
My favorite led fixture is Radions.

 

[d2mini]

As stated above, the higher end LED fixtures like Radion G4 or Mitras LX7 include this capability in their software. And they can ramp up (color and intensity) slowly.
Some LED fixtures are just on and off or have a couple channels (blue and white) that could be put on timers.

The old school way to do it is metal halide combined with T5 (or T8 if you really go old school).
The T5's would be your blues/actinics and the MH would be your daylight. You can have the T5's on a couple different timers, actinics first, then maybe some whiter blues. Then the MH would come on last. Opposite in the evening.

 

[The Bungulo]

ok. Im getting a red sea peninsula 500 (105g with a 27g sump). Ill look into the LEDs.