Moonlight for freshwater tank?

T

Trumper

AC Members
Oct 24, 2005
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Ahoy Mateys.

I'm about to setup a new Nano Cube (12). When I had my 29g in the past, I sometimes found myself wanting something like a moonlight so I could kinda watch the tank after the lights were off. (The tank will be in the living room with almost no ambient light but the TV). Back then, I never put one in (this was before the days of LEDs) cause I was worried about messing up the light cycle of the tank.

Nowadays, it seems there are a lot of little moonlight units, but most seem to be geared to salt tanks. Is a moonlight OK in a freshwater tank? Will it bother any types of fish or mess up their sleep routine? What about color? I see white, red, and blue LEDs out there....

I think I might just go with one of those little LED button size units...that should be easy to attach to the hood.
 
Trumper said:
Ahoy Mateys.

I'm about to setup a new Nano Cube (12). When I had my 29g in the past, I sometimes found myself wanting something like a moonlight so I could kinda watch the tank after the lights were off. (The tank will be in the living room with almost no ambient light but the TV). Back then, I never put one in (this was before the days of LEDs) cause I was worried about messing up the light cycle of the tank.

Nowadays, it seems there are a lot of little moonlight units, but most seem to be geared to salt tanks. Is a moonlight OK in a freshwater tank? Will it bother any types of fish or mess up their sleep routine? What about color? I see white, red, and blue LEDs out there....

I think I might just go with one of those little LED button size units...that should be easy to attach to the hood.
Click to expand...


I just got through with mine, I went with the DIY style. I am going to use Blue and Red. The Blue to simulate moonlight and the red to Fishwatch at night I have 4 tubes with 4 Leds in each, 8 red and 8 Blue fora 55Gal. It was farily easy to make, all i needed was LED's, Resistors, Power supply, Acrylic tubing, and a Potentiometer to dim them. If I were you I would not over do it, Use no more than 2-3 Leds in a 12Gal. Especisally the Blue, they are very Bright. That way you could cover about 1/2 the tank, and leave the other side dark, so fish that don't like the moonlight will have a place to flee. Blue Led's Give a beautiful ambient color to the tank, But red LED's will allow you to better see your fish.
 
Can't offer any advice or comments, but I was wondering about moonlights for freshwater tanks too... If you decide to try them, please post your results and/or observations, it'll be intersting how the fish and plants react to that. Goodluck.
 
They are great for fresh water tanks, I have sold numerous sets for tanks up to 210 gal. They give a cool light effect and it is said to reduce stress of the lights going on and off. Just like in nature when it is night time it is not pitch black there is some light. As stated when you do your lighting you should leave some dark spots. The system that I desinged had pods of three leds and you could use them to light up specific spots in the tank. In my 60 gal tank I have the front half of the tank light and the back is dark, so they can hide out if they want to. My fish were a lot more active during the day after I installed them in my tank and I would highly recomend them.
 
I do have a saltwater tank with moonlights, and I will add some once my freshwater is cycled.

There are such low wattage that they won't affect anything (ecept the look of course)

Also, I find the moonlights create the coolest effect: Place it over a nice spot of yuor aquarium (i.e. where there's a nice piece of driftwood, or a nice cave, etc.)
Then, cover off some of the light so that it illumintaes only that area. Trust me, its beautiful. You'll see silhouettes swimming across the lit area.

Hope this helps!
 
FYI:

The cold cathode only cost me 10 bucks.

2 for the AC adapter.
8 for two cold cathode lights.
 
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