MoonLight

[ghost78]

I was thinking about using the neon light from my pc as a moon lighting system for my reef.

Dose this pose any issues as far as strange algae growth or to much light on the reef at night?

I was going to try to use one to two tubes.

thanks
s

[Geoff]

read through this before you decide what you are going to do.

i am going to bet those lights are going to be far to strong to make a moonlight with.

G~

[ghost78]

http://www.pcmods.com/index.asp?Page...PROD&ProdID=20

these are the lights, I am not sure what kind or wattage it puts out.

I am still confused after reading the thread, but let me see if I got this right...

the only point in having moon lights is to elsit spawing activity. and for night viewing? am i correct?

I was under the impression that spawning was a good thing and it helped to provide more natural food for our reefs. I dose not seem as thought the question was answered to weather or not spawing in the tank is a good thing or not.

I also recall reading that corals do most of their growing at night. The photosyntesize during the day.

[Geoff]

a spawning event could be a very bad thing, depending on the size of the event. if the event is big enough it could start a chain reaction that could lead to a crash. that is a lot of volotile bio-mass all of a sudden dumped into the system.

but on the whole most people only want moon lights to view their critters at night. they also tend to use lights that are way to bright keeping thier critters up all night which can lead to psycho fish.

if you do decide to use one for viewing is suggest using red. a much greater chance that it not be seen by the critters and keep them sane. i know that it does not look "natural", but then again a moonlight not on a lunar phase timer with intensity control is about as far from "natural" as you can get.

G~

[Phishnoob]

I finally did four blue LED's from Radio Shack with a 12 volt supply and a resistor to put 80 mA through them in parallel (remember that currents in parallel add). The recommended current through an LED is 20 mA. To calculate the resistor needed from Ohm's law use this formula Resistance (ohms) = Voltage (volts) divided by Current (20 mA for one or add more for in parallel). Thus 12 volts divided by 80 mA for my 4 blue leds is 150 ohms for the resistance.

They have a tiny little project box that fits under the hood. Time to get it finished tomorrow.

PM me if you want some help with electronics math...too many plumbers out there.

Phishnoob