Automate Your Tank Lighting with Home Assistant + Hygger Lights

Your fish need a consistent day/night cycle — and you shouldn't have to remember to flip a switch every morning and evening. In this guide, we'll set up fully automated lighting for your aquarium using Home Assistant, a Hygger LED light, and a Tuya smart plug.

What You'll Need

• Hygger Full Spectrum Aquarium Light — has a built-in timer, but we'll control it externally for more flexibility
• Tuya Smart Plug — controls power to the light; flashed with Tuya-Local for 100% local control
• Home Assistant — the brain of the operation
• A WiFi network

Why Not Just Use the Built-in Timer?

Good question. The Hygger light has a timer — but Home Assistant gives you:

1. Sunrise/sunset tracking — your lights follow the actual sun
2. Scene integration — one button for "feeding mode" (lights dim)
3. Vacation mode — slightly randomized schedule so it looks natural
4. Notifications — know if the plug goes offline

Step 1: Set Up the Tuya Smart Plug

Plug your Hygger light into the Tuya smart plug. Set the light to its maximum brightness and leave it "on" — the smart plug will handle the on/off.

If you haven't integrated Tuya with Home Assistant yet:

1. Install the Tuya integration in Home Assistant
2. Or even better — flash the plug with Tuya-Local firmware for cloud-free control

Step 2: Home Assistant Automation

Add this to your automations.yaml:

# Aquarium Lighting — Sunrise Schedule
automation:
  - alias: "Tank Lights On — Sunrise"
    description: "Turn on aquarium lights 30 min after sunrise"
    trigger:
      - platform: sun
        event: sunrise
        offset: "00:30:00"
    action:
      - service: switch.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: switch.tuya_aquarium_plug

  - alias: "Tank Lights Off — Sunset"
    description: "Turn off aquarium lights at sunset"
    trigger:
      - platform: sun
        event: sunset
    action:
      - service: switch.turn_off
        target:
          entity_id: switch.tuya_aquarium_plug

  - alias: "Tank Feeding Mode"
    description: "Dim lights for 30 minutes during feeding"
    trigger:
      - platform: event
        event_type: call_service
        event_data:
          domain: script
          service: tank_feeding_mode
    action:
      - service: switch.turn_off
        target:
          entity_id: switch.tuya_aquarium_plug
      - delay: "00:30:00"
      - service: switch.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: switch.tuya_aquarium_plug

Step 3: Add a Dashboard Card

Add this to your Lovelace dashboard for at-a-glance tank status:

type: entities
title: "🐟 Aquarium"
entities:
  - entity: switch.tuya_aquarium_plug
    name: "Tank Light"
    icon: "mdi:lightbulb"
  - entity: sun.sun
    name: "Sun Position"
  - type: custom:template-entity-row
    name: "Light Schedule"
    state: >
      {% if is_state('switch.tuya_aquarium_plug', 'on') %}
        On until sunset
      {% else %}
        Off until sunrise + 30min
      {% endif %}

Result

Your tank now has:

• Automated sunrise/sunset lighting that follows the real sun
• A feeding mode you can trigger from your phone
• Dashboard monitoring so you always know the light status

Next up: Automate Water Temperature Monitoring →