Moonlights...

[jjackson]

I just made these moonlights and thought I would shoot a Video for Drehere who gave me some frags... again thanks man.

http://www.balletonline.com/FishTank-Moonlighting.wmv

James

[Yancey]

Very cool video, a little grainy, what did you shoot it with?

Do your corals act in the same way they do when you turn the tank lights out, or do they stay partially open?

[jjackson]

I shot it with a Cannon XL1-S

I dont leave it on all night... need to set up a timer just for a couple of hours after everything else goes off...

[georgeortiz]

What plans did you use for your moonlights?

[mharris7]

how long do you leave 'em on?

[RobertG]

Are these leds you put together or something you bought? Are they 12Volts? How did you mount them?

[RobertG]

I guess I should read little better. You made them outta what tell me more, this looks cool. If they are 12Volt I will have some serious fun. I have a moonlight controller by Giessmann. It has an adjustable output.

[jjackson]

I took an aold cell phone charger, 12 volt power wupply would work, I bought the LED's at the local radio shack, figured the proper resistor and soldered it all together, ... My power supply is an old nokia charger outputting 5.3v I bought 5v 5mm Blue LED's they are 2600 lum and 20 ma, I believe the resistor is an 100 ohm, I would have to double check. I soldered it all together drilled holes in different sections of my canopy an aimed them down, all and all the project cost me about 20 bucks and took less than an hour... if you need any further specifics just pm me....

[drehere]

Yea, after talking with James the other day and seeing his video I followed suit and made one last night. I too used a cell phone charger. It said it was a 9 V DC output, but I measured 15. I used the same blue leds from Radio Shack ($3.99 I think though) and 420 Ohm resisters. I also have a pot I was gonna add to tinker, but I got anxious to try it. Temporarily I just soldered and then taped them to my existing reflector. Pointed down they spotlight a little too much for me, but pointed to the reflector works better. I think their own reflector might work best. They weren't quite as bright as the actual moon last night.

James also suggested criss-crossing them to avoid the spotlight yet get good brightness.

I was planning on putting on a timer to run just a few hours a night. Any comments on running them all night? I assume a moonlight timer tries to simulate the full moon cycles?