My Moonlight Setup (lots of pics)

AVReefer

Premium Member
Based on ideas I got here, I installed this easy and relatively cheap moonlight setup.

All the stuff I got was designed for computers. Given that I've been building computers for years, its was pretty easy to convert it to my Reef hobby.

Here's what I used:

One of these with the extra bulb:
http://www.pcmods.com/details.asp?ProdID=137

My hood is 48" long so smaller hoods would not necessarily need the extra bulb.

One of these to power the lights:
http://www.pcmods.com/details.asp?ProdID=692

Here's what I got:
Moonlight off:
kitoff.jpg


Moonlight on:
kiton.jpg


You can't see the switch in the pic. The switch is connected to one of those metal brackets that are at the end of computer expansion cards. It was easy to remove the bracket and I'm going to leave it switched on all the time as I'll control the lights via timer (I'm thinking I'll have the moonlight going for two or three hours after the main lights go out).

Here it is installed in my hood:
hood1.jpg


hood2.jpg



Here is how it looks from the back:
No Flash:
back.jpg


With Flash:
backflash.jpg


Here is how it looks from in front of the tank:

front.jpg


I'm REALLY happy with the setup. All for about $45 and 30 minutes of my time. Thanks to RC for the ideas!

John
 
Looks great, thanks for the pictures. Looks like something I can do next week while I'm on vacation.
 
That is a nice DIY project.
How big of a tank do you have those setup on?
and do they come in any other color then blue?

Troy
 
Clownkeeper,

Its a 90g tank. They also come in Green, Red, & UV (which appears to be purple).

Kevin,

Countless hours have been spent in direct response to ideas I've got here. So, no, I will not stop! :D

John
 
John,

Thats the best looking moonlight I've seen. This is now added to the ever growing to do list. Would you recommend 3 lights for a 72" reef or would 2 do it?

Thanks for the inspiration!!!

Rob
 
Rfbeauchamp,

I'd probably install three on a 72" hood but a lot would depend on how it would work in the hood and whether I wanted to light the whole tank. For three bulbs, you would need another inverter as the kit they sell only powers two bulbs. An extra inverter is only $10 though.

Thanks for the compliment. :)

John
 
Do you think that's too much light? I've got a little 7 watt bulb in a porcelin light socket that I think is about right. I had a 14 watt (I think, maybe 15) that was way too bright for me, but it still didn't look anything like yours. For moonlight are we supposed to have that much light?
 
That's a good point but the "moon" is only going to be on during the 2 or 3 hour period between the main lights going off and the humans going to bed. My photoperiod now is noon to 10pm with the PC and 1 to 9pm with the MH. The moon will be on from 10pm to midnight or 1am at the latest. That's still 12 hours of zero lighting.

All I was trying to accomplish was being able to enjoy the tank after the main lights went out.

John
 
lol thats awesome!

i have one of those lights in my pc, i may take it out and see what i can throw together too.

-g
 
No intent to cut John off but all of that is plug and play. You can find all of those things at pcmods.com....

real easy and quick to setup....

check out his first pic.
 
Stopped by my local car parts place the other day and they had those cold cathode tubes for 20 bucks for 2.

Check out the autozone webpage or whomever is close to you.
 
Yup, plug and play. I don't like splicing stuff myself which is why the Nano Power Supply is such a nice piece of the "kit."

The bulbs and the inverter have velcro so you just stick everything where you want it to go.

While there's no info about this, I also like that these pieces were designed to be inside a computer which can be a very hot environment (especially for the kinds of computers in which these lights are installed (overclocked)). So, I'm hopeful that the parts will withstand the heat inside my hood.

John
 
The power supply is just 12v. Any reason I cant splice a 12 volt onverter myself, I have a bunch, I bought extras for running CPU fans. It would save $15!

John
 
I'm sure you could do it without the Nano Power Supply. However, one of my goals in doing this was to not have to do any splicing or things of that sort. :)

John
 
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