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Automated LED Lighting for Planted Aquarium Using RTC

A couple of years ago I decided to set up a planted aquarium. I was fascinated by the beauty of those aquariums. I did everything which I was supposed to do while setting up the aquarium but neglected one most important thing. That thing was lighting. Everything looked fine for few days but then algae started growing everywhere in the tank and the plants were not doing great. It is a tough job to get everything back to normal.
Now after many years, I want to set up the aquarium again giving importance to lighting. I did some research on the internet and found that plants need continuous exposure to light for around 10-12 hours daily. I also came to know that plants respond more to the red and blue spectrum of light.
The trick is to simulate nature as closely as possible inside the aquarium. I could have manually switched ON or OFF the lights but why not automate it. This reduces the human error. So, I decided to make a LED lighting system which turns ON and OFF automatically using Arduino. This makes the lighting period consistent which is what the plants need.
My tank will be having a cover on top of it. So I decided to mount the controller board outside the tank as moisture is the biggest enemy of electronics.”

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