LED moonlighting from autolumination

Well, I've looked but can't find any decent info on true moonlight. I've found mention of it here on the board with several people saying that 470n is pretty close, but all the comments have been lacking anything data to back that up so who knows how accurate that is.

For me it's an asthetics thing, and I like the blue that the LED's put out. I'm not going for 100 accuracy since that would be totally lost in the fact there is no lunar phase simmulation going on.

Brett
 
I saw another post on here about using the solar powered yard lights to use as moon lights. Has anyone tried that with these lights. I have a bunch of them and was woundering about hooking them up to a night light type of thing with a battery pack. That way my metal halides would recharge the battery during the day and then when they went off the solar lights would come on. I don't think the battery would last all night, but might be nice to just gradually go out. Kind of like the moon on the horizon.

Any ideas out there?
 
I just ordered 2 (plus a spare at that price) for my 90 gal. The pics of them in use sold me.

Thanks to whoever came up with this neat (and cheap) way to add moon lights to our tanks!
 
Ok,

I made mine a while ago, when the original moonlight thread came up in the DIY section. I wired them exactly like most people are doing it, up to a Universal adapter from Wal-Mart.

The problem is, (as was stated earlier in this thread), they do burn out. I was running mine at 12v, and from what it sounds like from some people, we do indeed need to replace the resistor in these things.

I don't know if I will add another one right now because I was concerned about the poor old fish. I left mine on all night while they worked, and the fish just kept on like it was midday. I noticed some corals didn't retract (I don't know if that's bad though or not).

I think that if I add some more, I will most likely have them on for an hour or two after my lights are off, and a couple of hours before my lights turn on.

I just need to figure out what to change on these LED's to make sure they don't burn out prematurely. I would like to just run them at 9v, but I don't know if that could still cause problems as someone on here gave an example of one running at 12v, with the possibly of the current being much higher than 12v. I guess a little more research.

If anyone has changed their resistors, what have you changed them too?

Zac
 
Originally posted by gitsumpottery
I don't know if I will add another one right now because I was concerned about the poor old fish. I left mine on all night while they worked, and the fish just kept on like it was midday. I noticed some corals didn't retract (I don't know if that's bad though or not).
Click to expand...

That is what i am concerned with right now. I wonder what effets it could have on the fish if they do not rest.
 
yeah rocko,

I read yours and was thinking the exact same when i was using them... Mine haven't been on for about a month now and I don't mind not having them. I remember someone talking about putting theirs on only for an hour or two before and after their lights... The after was for the fish to find their sleeping spots, although I would guess that they have no trouble with that, since they find it normally without.

zac
 
Well i switched my time on the led's. I have them on for about 2 hours after the lights go out and 2 hours before the lights come back on. I will keep everyone posted if i see a huge differents.
 
hehehe... my fish haven't spoken to me yet, so I don't know what they like.

all I know is that on a shallow tank, these lights can be pretty bright. I find it better for myself to sleep without any lights on, so I hope they like the same.

Zac
 
If the fish don't seem to want to sleep with them on do the pods and nocturnal things come out with them on or do they hide all night? Also, how many would one recommend for a 50 gallon tank? I ordered one of the 3 leds for now just to try it out but wondered what others thought.

Speaking of diet changes I read about people thinking about compressing plankton and making plankton steaks for human consumption. Yuck.
 
I have a 75g and i have 2 of the 3 leds which is plenty for me. I would not go more than 2 if you really wanted to.
 
I have 5 of the 8 LED units over my tank and it looks friggin awesome at night! I also keep a Mandarin that eats pods and is as fat as he ever was so the pods dont care.
 
Just ordered mine also. I mentioned in my note to them that I heard about them through RC, and that a lot of other members have ordered from them too. Let's see if we can get them to be a paid sponsor here. MODS, any input?

Russ
 
Just jumping in so I'm sorry if someone asked this before.

Is anyone using some sort of timer/dimmer that is programmed in accordance to moon phases? That device should turn LED's on and off and dimm them when there is for example only half moon.

In the book of Fossa and Nielsen I've read that they used moonlight that respected moon phases and had most of their corals in aquarium to spawn on the same night.
Although it is great achievement I'm not sure how would the filtration of standard aquarium cope with this heavy load.
 
my ac adapter has adjustable voltage and it goes down all the way to 1v and light dims as the voltage goes down. that will probably do the trick. just look at the calendar and adjust it manually to the moons phases. just a thought.
 
I just got mine in yesterday and installed them last night.
They look great :D
I'll try to get a pic tonight
2 of the 3 LED ones fully light my 72 bowfront.
 
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