I love the tank,
On the question about the lights being controlled by a timer.
Most modern florescent lights have a automatic ballast.
So do this simple test.
turn on the lights.
then grip the plug and pull it out of the wall socket.
then wait 15 seconds or so and plug it back in.
If the light comes back on then you can use a timer.
I have a combo of LED lights and florescent lights on my setup.
The LED lights are RGB LEDS that can provide Red Green Blue light in any combo
I want.
So for day time I power up all for white light.
and for night I just power the red with a lower voltage.
just enough light for me to see in and not too bright as I have heard that red light
can hurt the frogs eyes.