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Night Lights/ Moon Lights

2K views 18 replies 6 participants last post by  imnappy2 
#1 ·
This is my newly planted 75. Was having some major green water problems. Tried everything in the book... I fixed it! lol. But I have planted it.. and its rockin now. But I have really always like the moonlights people put on their reef tanks. I am up to odd hours of the night being a college kid / coming back from the bar with friends etc and want to show my tank off or look at it at night. So I put on some LEDs that are supposed to be the same wavelength as the moon. 470nm. And I absolutly LOVE the look of the tank at night. Infact I changed the light cycle so they go off earlier so the moonlights come on earlier.. lol. Anyway take a look tell me what you think! I am the one that had the slate background, will be putting that back on when i move to my new place. 5 months.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/imnap...p://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/imnappy2/my_photos

Thanks for the input,
Patrick
 
#5 ·
Looks like a great effect! Can you give more details on the LED's (where you got 'em, how you rigged 'em)?
 
#6 ·
They werent all that difficult to wire up. I bought my LEDs from lcled.com they produce all kinds of LEDs but i bought the 500TB4DF they have a 60 degree viewing angle on them. Then we have a local store that sells ALL kinds of random stuff and they had a bunch of old converters that converts your wall voltage to VDC. Mine took the voltage to 9VDC so i bought the resistors that would take the 9 down to the ideal voltage for the LEDs at 3.3V. I ran the LEDs in series and put a resistor on every single LED you can also run one larger LED in line to do the same thing. But if you have one go out then the works can go out. I just went the safe way because the LEDs I chose arent all that cheap. I took some 2 strand wire i bought from HD and soldered everything in, 6 lights in all. With everything covered in heat shrink. Took aluminum flat stock and drilled holes in and epoxied the lights into the bar so i could easily run them across my tank. This will be some what temporary until i get a hood built. But for now. Spectacular. Couldnt be happier with the set up. I have enough I think to make 2 more, i spoke with a guy on the phone and he was cool and sent me a bunch more lights for free.

Patrick
 
#8 ·
imnappy2:

Lets see how fine we can split hairs...

Blue (470nm) is not the color of the moon. The moon apears white <to us surface dwellers>. However, marine animals/reefs can see the moon as blue as the red is scattered first as it travels through the water. So nightlights for reefs/deep water=blue and nightlights for shallow freshwater=white.

Needless to say, I also have a blue DIY LED because it looks cool :)
 
#9 ·
Yes definately knew that the light was filtered by the water, and that it would change the color. But are all reef tanks considered deep water tanks then? Because yes the ocean is MUCH deeper than freshwater bodies of water but things still grow in both deep and shallow water in salt and fresh. So when does this transition take place that it becomes a blue 470nm?
 
#13 ·
My light looks fantastic is all i can say... and then when people walk in my room at night they just love it because they have never seen anything like it before.. and of course i tell them the wavelength of the light and that it mimics the moon etc etc.. steps it up a notch for non fish tank people.

And the aluminum flat stock that i drilled holes in does not really block the light at all its only like an inch wide, you cant notice it one bit, i am beyond happy with the setup and i am helping my cousin build the same for his planted tank. Got him into it they just look so good in a place especially when people come over!
 
#14 ·
Troy that looks great on the 10gallon are you going to be adding anymore when you place them on the 80 gallon?

I would really like to make a lighting system out of all LEDs to cover the whole tank, i have read about people doing it on nano tanks but why not a huge one?? just be something unique and take up a god aweful amount of time soldering all the lights in. lol
 
#15 ·
imnappy2:

If it works for you, keep doing it!

If you do an epich LED tray think about cutting a piece of PVC lengthwise and drilling holes at your spacing. Look for wider illumination angles too so that the 'spotlight effect' is less or buy a diffusor like on overhead lights to increase even illumination...

You might also look at 'cold cathode' that lots of case modders are using. They require 12V DC so I have stayed away so far. You can also rig up 'rope light' too.
 
#16 ·
I think i am just going to take regular silicon board that already has the copper etched on one side and all the holes drilled so all you have to do is solder in the right direction and you are set. The LEDs i have on my tank now are 60 degrees.

The problem with the cold cathodes is that i am not sure they are bright enough to act as the "sun" like my lights do now you know? and i know rope light wont cut it.
 
#17 ·
imnappy2 said:
Yes definately knew that the light was filtered by the water, and that it would change the color. But are all reef tanks considered deep water tanks then? Because yes the ocean is MUCH deeper than freshwater bodies of water but things still grow in both deep and shallow water in salt and fresh. So when does this transition take place that it becomes a blue 470nm?

The effect is two-fold:

Depth and index of refraction.
 
#18 ·
imnappy2 said:
Troy that looks great on the 10gallon are you going to be adding anymore when you place them on the 80 gallon?

I would really like to make a lighting system out of all LEDs to cover the whole tank, i have read about people doing it on nano tanks but why not a huge one?? just be something unique and take up a god aweful amount of time soldering all the lights in. lol
The picture of the 10gal is using one "brick" which consists of 3 LEDs. The 85gal will use two or three bricks, I'll have to see which gives the best effect.

As for making LED lights that would cover a large tank, it really comes down to cost. Good ones like those discussed on APC are hella expensive! I think they will be the future of planted tanks once the R&D is done and the price is brought down. Eventually someone will come up with a completely variable system that will accurately simulate dawn and dusk (since that can't be done with PCs.)
 
#19 ·
discussed on APC?? I know there is a dimmer for the moonlights that is set to the moon cycle. I wouldnt imagine it would be all that difficult to build, there was a senior design at my school where a group built a system that ran both led daytime lights and led night lights on full cycle.
 
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