moon light questions

[eleyan]

I've been reading alot about moon lights recently. And I'm not sure I'm getting the full picture on them. The 2 functional purposes I've read for them were:

1- help some nocturnal fish and predators see at night
2- simulate moon light for corals that needs that for spawning

Some of the DIY discussions recommend using 470nm LEDs to simulate moon light. Is this necessary? I guess for the 1st purpose, this might not be such a big deal, but is it essential for the 2nd one (corals spawning). Also, corals Spawn on a certain phase of the moon, so unless you simulate the full lunar cycle, how does the moonlight help? Are there any other reasons I'm messing?
I guess I'm trying to justify to myself that the setup I'm using is good enough. I ended up picking up 2 night lights (the flat square LED types from Home Depot) and an extension cord. The whole setup was <$10 and it looks good at night.

[rocketeer]

I've been wanting to do moon lights simply because I thought it might look cool without hurting anything. It might help me see at night... and I'm a predator! :twisted:

No, I don't eat out of my tank. I know somebody who has though.

Anyway, $10.00 sounds pretty good. Do they make blue light that makes fluorescent things shine?

Jack

[malofish]

post pics, I just one of the PFO moon light for my 54gal bowfront, four times what you paid, but it still should look cool!!

[TexasState]

My only liking for them is b/c they use very little electricity, yet can turn the corals florescent at night.

[eleyan]

here are some photos:
https://webspace.utexas.edu/eleyan/temp/nightlight1.JPG
https://webspace.utexas.edu/eleyan/temp/nightlight2.JPG
The color of the LEDs is greenish-blue. They consume so little power that you can just leave them on 24hrs. I got a pack of 2 for about $5 and 2 extension cords for $1 each. I ended up cutting the cords and connecting them in a "Y" connection with one night light on each end. It looks cool when all the lights are off, but its so dim that I couldn't take a photo of the tank in the dark. My camera does not have night mode either.

[bprewit]

Hey I decided to give this moonlight thing a try so headed down to radio shack to see what they had. They carry 5mm blue led's that peak at 430nm and have a output of 300mcd at 5v. All moonlights I have seen have been 470nm but figured I would give these a try for $1.99 each. I wired 4 led's together and took a cheap dollar store flashlight reflector and used epoxy to make my 4 led bundle stick in the reflector and then hung it on one side of the tank to test. Well its not the brightest in the world but definatly looks cool and has the shimmer effect like my metal halides. I will need to assemble one more for the other side of the tank but actually looks pretty cool when all lights are out. I have no clue as to whether or not this helps anything in the tank but hey it looks **** cool and dont need to shine a flashlight in the tank to see it at night. Total cost i figure will be less than $20 for the two sets of 4 using a 4.5VDC transformer I had from a portable cd player. Radio shack had 6VDC transformers for something like $10 that would work with about a 150ohm resistor I bet. Anyone else use these things? Hell with the flashlight reflector and the two part epoxy putty that I use to glue my frags it was **** easy and should be waterproof enough to last quite some time.

[Henry]

I also went the radio shack route, they do stock a led that peaks at the 470nm. Each one costs about $3-4. Thats what I used along with an older powersupply and the 150ohm resistors. Looks pretty cool and plenty bright.