Moon lighting good or bad idea?

mfabrizio75

New member
Hey i was just wondering if adding moon-lighting would be a reasonable decision to add to my tank. i found a 45 inch set up fairly reasonable and it would go nicely on my 75g. I also wanted to know if that would be something i should leave on at all times or for say an hour or two after the last lights go out. if anyone has any knowledge on this subject i would appreciate the feedback.
 
I just got one a few months ago. I don't think it matters one way or another to anything in the tank, but it sure does look cool.

Aaron
 
I personally have to manually turn it on and off. Too cheap/lazy to go and get a timer. One of these days.....

If I remember to turn it off before I go to bed, then I do. But often times I do not and I just turn it off in the am. I do remember hearing people who leave their's on 24 hours a day.

I'm kinda bummed, though, cause I bought the Corallife Aqualight. I hear now that they dont last too long, so I'm trying to turn it off more often than not, cause it wasn't cheap, and I'd rather not buy another any sooner than I have to.
 
I'm currently between moon lights, so my tank has had about a month of dark nights. I removed the blue LEDs that I had in there to make way for a couple of low wattage incandescents to be controlled by my aquacontroller. The aquacontroller has a dimmable moon simulator based on the lunar calendar that I've been dying to get setup (because how cool is that?) but I just haven't had the time. When I was running the LEDs I was just running them from lights off (11) to 4am. They were pretty neat, but pretty dim. I'm hoping that running two 5 watt blue incandescants will be pretty sublte most of the time and pretty bright during full moon.
 
awesome sounds good. it think ill do the same did you run them early morning at all like for two hours before your lights turn on?
 
I have the moon lights and I love them. I leave them on for a couple hours after light out 11:30-1:30am. lets me enjoy the night life. go for it
 
If you use the AquaController, the moon light will not be on every night as it is more correct in the lunar phases, not the same as having a moon light come on everynight.

I plan adding the AC jr. to my arsenal for the 90g. The dimming is neat except it seems to me that the dimmed parts of the cycle will correspond to when the moon is out more during the day then at night...so I am not decided on doing the incadescent moon or the LED moon. I may just do the LED moon but still set it on an appliance module and still let it be controlled by the AC.

Regardless of what you do, if you use the AC, throw in the command 'If LIT1 ON Then LUNR OFF', where LIT1 is your main light ad LUNR is you moon light. This way you dont wast bulb life while your main tank lights are on.

Last Opinion, if you go the incadesent route, check out the new lamp modules at www.smarthome.com. These modules can be programmed to have a delay/dim setting so that when a lamp is turned on, is slowly ramps up and ramps down at the off command. The effect may only be good for as long a 9 minutes though, still neat.

Chris
 
I just used a 1 watt LED bathroom nightlight. It is a blueish LED which is perfect and I just plugged it into my canopy. It has a daylight sensor, so it only goes on when it is dark. $4 :)
 
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