Moon lights

[SaltyMist]

I bought a prefab moonlight ($21.00), and installed it on the original mount that came with it to hook it up to a coralife PC lighting hood (it basically slips into one of the leg channels on the front or rear), and turned it on. What I found was that the light was too directed it didnt spread out in the tank more than perhaps 8 inches or so. It's aproximately 3 or 4 inches above the water line. So I lifted up the hood to about 12" from the tank and it obviously spread out the blue lighting quite a bit, but still not nearly enough to cover the whole tank.

So Im thinking about doing some diy moonlighting, but I want to keep them contained to the existing hood and Im wondering how I go about doing this?

I was thinking of just cutting the surround on the prefab unit so that it was shorter, thinking that this would allow the light to spread out further by doing so, but IM leary of trying since I may end up throwing $21.00 down the drain if I do.

Any suggestions, hints or tips?

 

[Anonymous]

My guess is the LED you currently have has a narrow viewing angle and simply swapping it out with another with a wider angle will give you your desired results.

Try searching here..
http://www.eled.com

Careful though, there are LOTS of options to consider. - If you just want to swap out LED's make sure you're matching up the right diameter. (3mm or 5mm usually..) - There are also lots of options in terms of lens type and luminosity too..

Play around, they're cheap..

 

[Anonymous]

I would probably try with this one first...
http://www.eled.com/product.asp?catalog ... d=E7104PBD

 

[Anonymous]

Salty, do you live in a metro area? are there theatrical lighting companies in your city? ask them for a Rosco swatchbook. It;s a book of about 300 small plastic filters for lights. There's a section of difusion sheets( there is a type called "silk" that actually spread the light out directionally from the light source. One piece over your led might actually make it work.

If not, I'd DIY yourself another LED assembly or two.

B

 

[SaltyMist]

Thanks, my partner works at the college in the city where we live and he teaches senic design (builds sets and teaches college students how to build sets for the college theatrical productions), so I'll ask him if the school has any they can spare.

 

[holry7778]

I'm cheating, I'm going to use a set of 50 blue x-mas lights. They are really dim and will fit prefectly in my DIY hood. They are easy tio install, cheap and easy to replace! always something to think about when DIYing a project!

 

[SaltyMist]

I think the blue light simulates closely with the moons spectrum at 470, Im not so sure about the blue xmas lights. I put it in there for two reasons.

1. So I could see whats going on in my tank at night and....
2. My LFS has had tremendous plant growth off of their liverock and they dont add anything to the water, and are supposing that it is the moon lights that are built into their hood.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, my partner works at the college in the city where we live and he teaches senic design (builds sets and teaches college students how to build sets for the college theatrical productions), so I'll ask him if the school has any they can spare.

Tell him to ask the lighting designer for one cut of Rosco 104 (tough silk) That way you'll have enough to play with. The swatch book will only give you a 1x2' piece, the cut will be 6" square or so.

Something my GF brought up. (she's a lighing designer) Any diffusion you put in front of the light will cut down the ammount of light getting to the tank. So even if the gel spreads out the light, it may become to dim for your taste. Then you're back to adding more light.

B

 

[andernie]

I wish no wasting a new thread, so I pump from here.

Can I switch on only Moon light for 24 hours?

My times table below:-
===============
9:00 pm - moon light on
10:00 pm - Bright light on
6:00 am - Bright light off
7:00 am - moon light off

Thanks

 

[holry7778]

I just added moons lights to my Pico 3/4g light fixture that comes with the Red Sea/Azoo set up.

I put in two RadioShack #276-311 5mm Blue LEDs(5v, 30mA, 300mcd, 430nm) I used an old AC to DC wall plug transformer block (4.7v, 500mA) I had laying around.

Pretty much consealed in the original fixture with no drilling or mods (yeah!!!). It went together in less than an hour and that includes the all important TV time

The lights are about 5" off the water and seem really dim. Which actually is great since the tank is in the bedroom. I hope to get some picts up soon as the camera is charged up.

 

[Rikko]

Andersen & Kenie - your English is perfectly fine, but I'm a little confused about the schedule you are proposing for lighting.
You want to run the moonlights from9pm to 7am (ie. throughout the night), and your main lighting from 10pm to 6am... Also through the night? Or did you mean main lights from 10am to 6pm?

I'll assume you meant is it a problem to run moonlights all night such that there is never a complete dark phase in the tank... You can do that, though I personally wouldn't. The moon isn't always the exact same brightness out there every night and I have a feeling there would be some benefit to having a complete dark phase. Do I have anything to back that up? Not at all, it just seems more natural.
When I get my moonlights rebuilt I'm planning to run them from about 7am (main lights on at 8:30am) until 3am (main lights off at 11pm). That will allow me 4 hours of total darkness and a few days of the month I'll unplug them to simulate a new moon.
Obviously that's scarcely more natural than just running them 24/7, but I think it might be a little more gentle on the life in the tank.

I'll be sure to report back useless anecdotal evidence in the future.