[southernexposure]

I have a new reef setup I have the Current 72 inch lighting system with 6 moon lights. Should I keep these lights on all nite which seem very bright, will they distrupt the fishes natural sleep pattern. All comments are welcomed.

[Dive_Master]

6 moon light seemd to many for me
I have 2 on 48 inch tank and it looks cool at night, I have them on for 4 hours after the lights go off.

I used becuse the tank looks cool and some animals enjoy it as well.

That is about it.

[southernexposure]

Originally Posted by Dive_Master

6 moon light seemd to many for me
I have 2 on 48 inch tank and it looks cool at night, I have them on for 4 hours after the lights go off.

I used becuse the tank looks cool and some animals enjoy it as well.

That is about it.

thank you i think i will leave it on for 4 hours as well it does look cool!

yours richard

[Reefland]

Hi southernexposure, Welcome to Reefland!

Without control over the lights to match the lunar cycle (and even then), I don't think your reef will benefit from the lights, nor harm from it. So if you like them and they look cool, run them as long as you want. If they are really bright, make sure to give your corals some darkness though.

[WHOSYOURDADDY]

Mine come in automatically at 9PM and then shut off at 3AM - which I try to simulate the moon's cycle.

The one I have are DIY low intensity lighting 10 on a strip bar across the top of my 55gal. This seems to be working well cause I come home from work about 2AM and sit in the chair and watch the "Night Life" it really is pretty cool.

[Poseidon]

Geez you guys are gonna make me go out and buy a couple blue LED's... I am going to need a BIGGER 12V supply.... OH Wait, I have a 30AMP one from when I used to race R/C Cars! How many LED's do you think I could run off that??? LOL!

[WHOSYOURDADDY]

Originally Posted by Poseidon

Geez you guys are gonna make me go out and buy a couple blue LED's... I am going to need a BIGGER 12V supply.... OH Wait, I have a 30AMP one from when I used to race R/C Cars! How many LED's do you think I could run off that??? LOL!

The Chronicles of Poseidon - get some shades dude

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by southernexposure

I have a new reef setup I have the Current 72 inch lighting system with 6 moon lights. Should I keep these lights on all nite which seem very bright, will they distrupt the fishes natural sleep pattern. All comments are welcomed.

What sort of moonlights? Are they LEDs or low wattage incandescent lamps? If they are incandescent lamps, are they on a separate power cord so that they can be controlled and even dimmed?

The only true moonlights that I am aware of for use in the hobby are low wattage incandescent lamps because they can be dimmed. If you can't control them, then all you have are nightlights, not moonlights.

Steve Tyree covered moonlight intensity in an article he wrote back in 1992. He evidently covered it in even greater detail in another article in 1994 because his artificial moonlight in the aquarium charts have been copied in Fossa & Nilsen's The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium, Volume One on pages 201 and 202. The maximum at full moon would give a reading of 200 lux incident on the surface of the corals. Most of the month it would be much less intense than that and for a third of the month it would be less than 40 lux. In fact, for eight days near new moon it would be less than 20 lux.

You can duplicate those conditions with one or more (depending on the surface area of your tank) 25w blue incandescent lamps controlled by a computer, such as Neptune Systems Aquacontroller, that dims the lamps to replicate natural moonlight intensity depending on the phase of the moon. The controller also turns the moonlight on and off in accordance with natural moonrise and moonset schedules, which means that your moonlight's photoperiod will vary each night and it will even be on during the daylight part of the time.

If you don't have a computer controller for your moonlight, just check with the Naval Observatory's handy little moonrise and moonset calculator and reset your timer every day. Oh, and you would need to have a dimmer, too, so that you could adjust the intensity based on the appropriate phase.

Maybe your local area's website gives moonrise and moonset times? San Francisco's moonrise and moonset times for today and tomorrow appear at the top of their live views page: http://www.sfgate.com/liveviews/

[saltjunkie]

Originally Posted by Ninong

What sort of moonlights? Are they LEDs or low wattage incandescent lamps? If they are incandescent lamps, are they on a separate power cord so that they can be controlled and even dimmed?

The only true moonlights that I am aware of for use in the hobby are low wattage incandescent lamps because they can be dimmed. If you can't control them, then all you have are nightlights, not moonlights.

Steve Tyree covered moonlight intensity in an article he wrote back in 1992. He evidently covered it in even greater detail in another article in 1994 because his artificial moonlight in the aquarium charts have been copied in Fossa & Nilsen's The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium, Volume One on pages 201 and 202. The maximum at full moon would give a reading of 200 lux incident on the surface of the corals. Most of the month it would be much less intense than that and for a third of the month it would be less than 40 lux. In fact, for eight days near new moon it would be less than 20 lux.

You can duplicate those conditions with one or more (depending on the surface area of your tank) 25w blue incandescent lamps controlled by a computer, such as Neptune Systems Aquacontroller, that dims the lamps to replicate natural moonlight intensity depending on the phase of the moon. The controller also turns the moonlight on and off in accordance with natural moonrise and moonset schedules, which means that your moonlight's photoperiod will vary each night and it will even be on during the daylight part of the time.

If you don't have a computer controller for your moonlight, just check with the Naval Observatory's handy little moonrise and moonset calculator and reset your timer every day. Oh, and you would need to have a dimmer, too, so that you could adjust the intensity based on the appropriate phase.

Maybe your local area's website gives moonrise and moonset times? San Francisco's moonrise and moonset times for today and tomorrow appear at the top of their live views page: http://www.sfgate.com/liveviews/

[WHOSYOURDADDY]

Originally Posted by Ninong

The only true moonlights that I am aware of for use in the hobby are low wattage incandescent lamps because they can be dimmed. If you can't control them, then all you have are nightlights, not moonlights.

Actually LED's can be dimmed - these are the type that I have on my system along with a "Lunar Tracker"