Blinking Night Light

[Dive_Master]

I am designing a nightlight for my reef that is using LED's. Since I will be using AC current 60 Hz, the LEDs will blink at 60 or 120 times/second.

Does anyone know if this blinking will adversely affect the life in my tank?

[Biomanjcs72]

Are you turning your reef tank into a night dance hall???

sorry, I have no idea what, if anything it will do to your fish and corals, the thought just came to me and I had to put it down.

I wouold think that even at twice a second, it would not be a very good night light, just kind of like a bouy in the ocean, lets you know where it is every few seconds.

[Rin]

I doubt that the vision of most the inhabitants in your tank is acute enough to notice a 60 Hz blink. Your dogs and cats would notice (and not care one wit).

[Reinhold]

Yesterday, I heard a local pet store expert on the radio touting the newest accessory or salt water and reef tanks...LASER LIGHT SHOWS!

He wasn't kidding, apparently you can buy a laser apparatus for your tank. Sounds quite physiologic to me!

[RobG]

I saw those Laser setups in the ThatFishPLace catalog I got a couple of weeks ago. I am NOT buying one, but here's a link for those that are interested:

http://www.thatpetplace.com/cgi-bin/...2=laser-SCPROD

[organicreefer]

quote from the ad:
"Perfect for fresh or saltwater fish, fish raised with the miraclebeam aquarium laser system have brighter colors, stronger bodies, larger fins and fewer diseases"

man, im throwing away all my liverock/sand,and trading my skimmer for the "miracle beam"

[Reinhold]

I can just see it...Peter Max posters on the tank glass, black lights instead of actinics, laser light shows, and fish eating special THC DT's (Doobie Tidbits.)

Yellow Tang: "Hey man, dig the rack of polyps on the new Elegance!"

Banghai Cardinal (wearing fish sunglasses): "Far out, man..."

[SPasse]

Dive_Master,

As a EE, I have a suggestion, why not add a bridge rectifier and a filter capacitor so the LEDS are running off of DC?

As you have indicated, because of their fast on/off response time, LEDS are capable of pulsing at >60 Hz.

But the physiological effects of light pulsed at this rate are TBD.

Fluorescent lamps also are “pulsed” at this rate, but the “persistence” of the phosphors bridges the pulses.

Finally, most LEDS burn up when powered by AC. (Unless they have a built in extra diode)

Regards,

Scott Passe