moon lighting?

[Hans]

hi does anyone use a moonlight? if so, where did you get it and can you make your own? and do fish HATE total darkness such as the advertisers say? thanks

[tomm10]

I made some since I couldn't see spending the $25 they want for one of those "Aquarium Moonlights" I posted about it on the other Moonlight thread so I'll just quote myself.

"I went into Auto Zone or one of those places and bought a set of three blue LEDs that come in a kit ($7). You're supposed to mount them inside your car and hook them up to the cars electrical system. This would make you cool.

Anyway, all I did was take a strip of plexi (1/16 thick) about an inch wide and cut it short enough to fit under my 10g light hood on top of the plastic canopy. I then drilled three holes in the plexi at equal intervals across the strip. The LEDs in this kit had little plastic housings around them that snap fitted into the holes but you could just silicon them in place too.

I connected the wires to a old 12v AC/DC converter I had and had an instant moonlight. I just keep them on all the time because the things will run forever and you can't see them with the regular lights on.

The downside to these is that the beams are visible. It illuminates the whole tank but you can definitely tell where the three LEDs are. I suppose if I got more involved I could come up with some kind of diffuser but I've got other things I can do with my time All in all it took me about an hour to do both tanks and its completely worth it."

Moonlight Tank pics on this page (http://home.earthlink.net/~mtbtom/tomandjaimesplace/id5.html)

[Lauren]

Originally posted by tomm10
"I went into Auto Zone or one of those places and bought a set of three blue LEDs that come in a kit ($7). You're supposed to mount them inside your car and hook them up to the cars electrical system. This would make you cool.

:laugh: RICER!!!!

I was thinking about this last night after reading the other moonlight thread. I watch my fish mostly at night, so it would be great to do a mod like this to my tank. But I was thinking...

I have a low light set up, and the housing for the bulb comes off of the head unit for my tank. I was thinking about getting a sheet of plexi glass, cutting it to the length of the housing and tinting it blue probably with blue model tint. I think this would work well, do you?

[tomm10]

You might not even have to go so far. you should be able to buy a light gel. If you want to pay a bunch of money you could ask for one at a photo shop. Otherwise you could try a craft store for transluscent films you can usually get them in sheets and a variety of colors. You could just lay that in below the light and it should work.

I'm not familiar with model tinting so I have no idea how well it would filter the light.

[Lauren]

I used model tint on the rear lights of my cars to smoke them. The light shines through just dandy, only its a little well... smokey.

http://mail.roadfly.com/little740girl/car+007.jpg

but i'll swing by a craft store too, that would be easier than tinting, leaving to dry, tinting again, coating until right, then clear coating the plexi glass.

[caz]

Originally posted by tomm10
You might not even have to go so far. you should be able to buy a light gel.


is that the stuff you see on the decorated bulbs in wall mart?

looks like they took colored hot glue and covered the lightbulb in it? cause that might work, since flourescent lighting doesnt give off a lot of heat. you know the stuff im talking about.=?

[tomm10]

Light gels aren't actually "gels" at all. They're usually acetate or the like.

Lauren, if you used the model tint on the tail lights I have to think it would actually let too much light through. Too much like and fish could become freaked.

[Lauren]

I'd do many, many coats. I only did two coats on the tail lights so that the light would shine through easier, and becuase I wanted a lightly smoked look. I'll go to a craft store first, though, and see what I can find.

[Oakley]

hmm wonder if these would work???

http://www.pets-warehouse.com/vpasp/shopexd.asp?id=90002