# under the moonlight



## ryanimpreza (Jul 19, 2006)

whats the deal with the LED moonlight for your tank. Does this help with anything. I have seen it on some tanks before. They look cool but do they have a function.


----------



## benJii (Feb 17, 2005)

Nope, there is no 'real' function. Although some may argue that they aid in the reproduction cycles of some corals.


----------



## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

Compleatly asthetic for freshwater. It does simulate moonlight tho. They will go ahead and do their noctournal thing and the light lets you watch while they do. 
I dig it. I made my own. But I'm sure teh LFS ones are almost as good.

Heres how mine looks lit up.


----------



## mikfleye (Jul 27, 2006)

BlackSunshine420 said:


> Compleatly asthetic for freshwater. It does simulate moonlight tho. They will go ahead and do their noctournal thing and the light lets you watch while they do.
> I dig it. I made my own. But I'm sure teh LFS ones are almost as good.
> 
> Heres how mine looks lit up.


that does look pretty awsome, do you have that on all night, and then your reg light on all day???


----------



## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

yeah I have them and the main lights on timers. So the moonlights on thru the night and in the morning the main lights come on for a couple hours. Then theres a 4hr break and then they come on again till 10 min to midnight.


----------



## cueball (May 24, 2005)

BlackSunshine420 said:


> Compleatly asthetic for freshwater. It does simulate moonlight tho. They will go ahead and do their noctournal thing and the light lets you watch while they do.
> I dig it. I made my own. But I'm sure teh LFS ones are almost as good.
> 
> Heres how mine looks lit up.


 how do you make your own??? ive tryed with many thangs but i cant match the real store moon lights? dooo tell


----------



## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

Crap. I was afraid someone would ask. It involves getting a 
a package of LEDs. I used 15 for mine.
Some LED clips 
a LONG uplift tube like you can get at the pet store.
a couple end caps
some 2 strand wire 
a 12V power transformer
A receptical for the end of the transformer (local electronics store)
metal strapping with all the little holes in it. 
And an inline power switch.
Electrical tape and shrink wrap.

first thing. Take the roll of strapping and cut it at your desired lenght. 
Put Electrical tape over one side of the strapping so that the power leds don't touch the strapping. That will be used for your ground and you want the bare side in front where the LEDS will poke out from. not the back where the leads from the LEDs are. thats the positive side.
Slip the LED clips into the strapping about 1-2 in apart from each other and then the LED's themselves. 
I reccomend soldering the ground lead from the LED to he face of the strapping. as you go so you don't have everything moving around. 
I found it best to take each segment of 5-6 LEDs and treat that as one set. And ran 5 short wires into one long wire that went the lenght of the unit. That way At the end I only had 3 wires to tie into the common power instead of 15. This will give you 1 power wire that will come out of the unit.

At this point you should have all your LEDS grounded and power wires all soldered in place. at the end of the strapping where you will run the power line you will want to solder a lead on the face of the bar so that you can run your ground wire. then main unit is complete. You will then want to take that uplift tube and cut it to the needed lenght to fit all that sh*t inside it. cap one end. And drill a SMALL hole on the other cap so you can pull your +/- wires thru it. Slide the unit into the tube. cap the end. Since this unit is going to be above water I reccomend you use silicone to cover the hole that the wires come out of.

For my power switch I used an inline lamp style switch. press it into the power wire and run your ground thru it. Give yourself some slack on the ground. From this point you can add as much power wire as you need. and from the switch you want a female connector so your tranformer can plug into it. 
If you've done everything right you can now power the unit up.

I'll try and post pics of the materials tonight.


----------



## Fordfanatic (Feb 2, 2006)

Thanks for the write up, I might try that!


----------



## harrykaa (Jan 10, 2005)

ryanimpreza said:


> whats the deal with the LED moonlight for your tank. Does this help with anything. I have seen it on some tanks before. They look cool but do they have a function.


Well, these are of no use for plants.
You posted this to Aquatic Plants Forum.

Harry


----------



## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

Fordfanatic said:


> Thanks for the write up, I might try that!


Good luck. I wouldn't exactly follow my steps to a T. Theres little things that I left out that should be common sense if you know a little about working with electronics and electricity. 
Such as LED's do have a + and a - side.
sh*t!! I left out a VERY important part!

For your LED's to work you need a resistor on the + side. otherwise you will fry the LED and possibly cause a fire. damnit!! I'm sorry for leaving that part out. 
I doubt anyone has had time to build one tho. I got my LED's off Ebay and the seller included the required Resistors.


----------



## wlecount (Jan 22, 2006)

Yeah I can vouge for the hole LED's catching on fire if overloaded or wired up the wrong way. I personally have used LED's as moonlights, but changed to cold cathode tubes. Heres a few threads that show mine and other's setups.

Setup

Discussions and Pics


----------



## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

wlecount said:


> Yeah I can vouge for the hole LED's catching on fire if overloaded or wired up the wrong way. I personally have used LED's as moonlights, but changed to cold cathode tubes. Heres a few threads that show mine and other's setups.
> 
> Setup
> 
> Discussions and Pics


lol I learned the hard way too. But mine were inside the feet of my computer case. Hows that for a heart attack?! fireing up a brand new built PC only to have a "pop fizzle" and FIRE. haha that was a scary moment. sucks cause you can't toss water on them to put it out. heheheh.


----------

