Just something I was kinda pondering since a lot of fish are triggered to spawn in and around the rainy season. I made a rain simulation (certain times and external pump kicks on and pumps cooler water through a mist/rain drop system setup on top one of my tanks) now I am thinking of maybe throwing in some thunder and lightning. For lightning I was thinking of going with a few dozen blue leds set to pulse 2-3 times per second every few minutes for around half hour. I want to have the thunder involved to (yes this is more for my pleasure than the fish). I am looking for some ideas as to how to go about this part. Have it trigger the sound maybe a second or two after the lighting flash.
Thunderstorm Simulation
- Thread starter Big_Z
- Start date
That would be pretty baller if it ends up looking legit.
What would be REALLY cool is to make your tank EXTRA EXTRA Tall...like 5-6 feet of extra glass and put your system at the top of that. Figure out how to make yourself some cloud in there and really make it look legit with cloud, rain, strobes & led's for lightning, a nice sound system for thunder....damn man. I hope you're rich enough to do this, because I want to see it happen
What would be REALLY cool is to make your tank EXTRA EXTRA Tall...like 5-6 feet of extra glass and put your system at the top of that. Figure out how to make yourself some cloud in there and really make it look legit with cloud, rain, strobes & led's for lightning, a nice sound system for thunder....damn man. I hope you're rich enough to do this, because I want to see it happen
LOL, Not rich just a scavenger who likes to make things that are not junk out of junk. The clouds should not be hard to do if I could get ahold of a fogger system for terrariums. The thing I am trying to figure out with the thunder is do I wanna go with a big bass speaker (fish will notice sound waves more than the correct sound) or smaller speakers that don’t create as large of a sound wave but will sound more realistic to me. The LEDs were scavenged out of some cheapo led lights and I am working on the circuit for them to strobe in the pattern / order that I want them to. Hmm maybe a plywood tank on its side (so its 8' tall and 4' wide)2/3 full of water. now you have my mind rolling a little bit more 
Could even build a ledge and have some plants in there
Could even build a ledge and have some plants in thereWith that ledge...you could go with plants to look like trees and do your background to look like the shoreline....
With the speakers....why not both? Get a 2.1 system (logitech would do the trick on the cheap, bose would sound GREAT) put the woofer in your stand (or just on the floor next to it) and mount the satellites to the wall (or build small shelves off the sides of your stand at the bottom of the tank OR if you build a canopy for the top mount them to the side of that.
Man if you've got the tank to do this with you could do it really nice without much extra cost depending on what you use/need for speakers and lights & whatnot. I think it'd be worth it just to see the effect of the 'rain' on the surface of your tank water
With the speakers....why not both? Get a 2.1 system (logitech would do the trick on the cheap, bose would sound GREAT) put the woofer in your stand (or just on the floor next to it) and mount the satellites to the wall (or build small shelves off the sides of your stand at the bottom of the tank OR if you build a canopy for the top mount them to the side of that.
Man if you've got the tank to do this with you could do it really nice without much extra cost depending on what you use/need for speakers and lights & whatnot. I think it'd be worth it just to see the effect of the 'rain' on the surface of your tank water
i don't know about thunder and lightning but a drop in barometric pressure is well documented as a spawning trigger in many species
That and I need to figure out how to have it all wired together so that the lights flash before the thunder so that they are not both completely out of synch.