Article: IceCap's Retro LED Moonlighting

[melev]

You can view the page at http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.p...D-Moonlighting

[cdmorrison01]

Those led's really make the colors POP. Do you know how many watts each bulb is?

[Snakebyt]

the orange blob looks great under those

[melev]

There are a few corals that look striking under the moonlights.

I like the orange and green acans in the front center. And the pink branching hammer coral (left of the Toadstool) has a green section that glows while the other half doesn't have any green at all. The Tongue plate coral on the substrate is another favorite, as well as the pink chalice.

[Arvind]

Hi Marc,Nice write up and great pictures as usual. Do you think one row of this LED strip is good enough - for a 24" width of the tank?Arvind.

[melev]

Yes, a 2' light is 20" in length, and will fit over your 24" wide tank.

[Terri_Ann]

So you do not advocate leaving moonlights on for 8 hours because the corals need to rest? Is there any scientific data explaining why to not leaving them on for the night? I just assumed it would be okay to leave them on due to natural moonlight over a reef...hmmm.

[melev]

The moon doesn't shine full strength for 8 hours every night in the same spot, just like the sun doesn't blast us all day long. We have a gradual rising of the sun, then the intensity can be felt for a few hours before it tapers off and we cool down again with lots of shadows.

Same with moon lighting. Keep in mind the moon isn't even a full moon but only one day a month, and with the various phases it goes through, there are nights of total darkness and other nights with limited light.

There have been presentations giving on LED lighting at MACNA, and one that stuck in my mind was a beautiful reef tank in a fish store that had two corals that looked terrible. They just happened to be in the exact spot where the LED light pinpointed all the time. The bulb uses so little power that the owner didn't see the reason to use a timer and left them plugged in all the time. Thus the corals bleached because they never got a break. That seemed more than a reasonable assumption for me, and frankly I've never used moonlights in all the years I've been in the hobby.

I'm enjoying the one hour each night after my actinics turn off, but have no issue with my reef being in complete darkness for the majority of the night. Do you stay up all night with your tank? Could you not set the lights to turn off when you slumber and give your corals a break?

[Lukinrats]

So Marc! Do you think these are not strong enough to supplement halide lighting?

[melev]

No, not at all. With MH lighting on, you won't be able to see them whatsoever. These are called "moonlights" for a reason.