Moon lighting?

[Reefer Ron]

I have 6' of blue rope light mounted in my canopy 11" above the water level and it goes on just before the lighting goes off and goes off just after the lighting goes on. Is this too much light at night? You can see in the tank at night if all the lights in the house are off! Any comments?

[greeneyedlady]

My light fixture has the moon lights built in and they come on around 9 at night and go off around 4 am, I've been running it that way for the last year and a half and haven't noticed any problems. One thing I do like about it is being that I normally work nights on my "days" off when I am up and everybody is asleep you can see some really cool critters you normally wouldn't see with any other lights on. Ex: I have peanut worms and they only come out when the moon lights are on ;)

[Reefer Ron]

Yea, sometimes I plan on sitting and staring at the tank for 30 minutes or so, nest thing you know 2 hours have gone by. Are your moon lights single led's or rope lighting?

[DEdwards]

Are the LED's blue or is the rope blue. That might make a difference in your wavelength. Blue LED's emmit ~460-470nm wavelength. Here are a few photos of some lights that I made.

http://lafayetteghost.home.insightbb.com/box1.jpg
http://lafayetteghost.home.insightbb.com/box2.jpg
http://lafayetteghost.home.insightbb.com/box3.jpg
http://lafayetteghost.home.insightbb.com/finished.jpg

[Reefer Ron]

The LED's are white with blue rope. The rope is 6' long and in the front all the way at the top of my canopy 11' off the water surface. I don't believe that it is as bright as your light. I just wanted to be able to see what was going on at night. Are you ruing the LED's from the low voltage transformer?

[N8DOGG]

Thats cool was this very hard to do and did it cost much?
http://lafayetteghost.home.insightbb.com/box1.jpg
http://lafayetteghost.home.insightbb.com/box2.jpg
http://lafayetteghost.home.insightbb.com/box3.jpg
http://lafayetteghost.home.insightbb.com/finished.jpg

[swampfox25]

Yeah any instructions I am intereseted

[wastememphis]

eleven feet off the water?!?!?! (just messing with you ron lol) do you have any pictures of your tank with only the ropelights on at night?

[DEdwards]

It wasn't too expensive nor was it very hard. Depending on how many lights you want to setup will determine how to wire it. I went with 4 since the voltage drop for the lights were 3.3vdc. 4 lights will drop the 12vdc to 3vdc across each of them when wired in series. Then I added a 150ohm resistor on the positive lead before the first led to add as some protection. If you would like some directions I can make some up.

(Qty) [Description] _(Price)_
4 [3mm LED Blue lights from lsdiodes.com] _($2.00)_
1 [3"x2"x1" project box from Radio Shack] _($2.70)_
1 [Printed circuit board from Radio Shack] _($1.79)_
1 [150ohm resistor from Radio Shack] _(dunno had is laying around)_
1 [powersupply from my MS Joystick] _(I didn't need this AC plug so i cut the connector off)_
Total was less than $10
Knowing electronics and how to wire LED's priceless...sorry had to add that part...lol

[DEdwards]

BTW...thanks n8dogg for reposting those pics. I don't have photoshop at work so I couldn't resize them so i just posted links. That gooey stuff is Die-electric grease. I put that on there to prevent the wires & solder from corroding.

[greeneyedlady]

http://www.marineandreef.com/shoppro/power_Orbit.html

sorry it took a couple of days to get back to you this is the light I have on my tank :)

[swampfox25]

You didnt need the ac plug so you cut it off. Does the plug get wired directly to the board? Do you know if radio shack sells the led that you used? Thanks. I diagram would be nice ;)
I am thinking of doing 2 lights I wonder if I need more resistance?

[DEdwards]

The plug that I cut off was the connector that went into the joystick, not the plug that goes into the wall. You will need to plug the socket into the wall and measure the voltage on the wires to verify voltage and polarity. Yes I wired the cord from the powersupply directly to the board. (I hesitate calling it an AC cord because at this point it is now in DC current) Your best bet if you wanted to go with 2 LEDs is to get a 120VAC-5VDC convertor and add a resistor to the positive leg of each of the LED's. Stepping down from 12VDC for 2 lights can be tricky to figure out the proper resistances and wattage on the resistors. I will post a diagram tomorrow when I get to work and have some CAD software to work with.

[N8DOGG]

thanks for the info, No problem on the reposting the pictures I can't open links at work and it was just eayser to view the pictures like that. If you can directions would be great. also I'm looking forward to your cad diagram.
Thanks N8

[DEdwards]

Work has been hellish lately. We have a new machine that is getting ready to ship so my free time has been minimal. (sp) Sorry brain is dead from too much work

[roliva]

Moonlights are very nice. I followed this link: http://www.lc-led.com/View.jsp?idProduct=64 to make my own moonlights as you can see in my avatar. There is a link on that web page where you can buy the blue leds that were used for my moonlights. From personal experience, these blue leds are high quality and I don't think RadioShack sells them. I don't know if they're still in business though.

[roliva]

Moonlights are very nice. I followed this link: http://www.lc-led.com/View.jsp?idProduct=64

Sorry, posted wrong link: Here it is:
http://www.kaotica.com/frag/diy/moonlight/

[DEdwards]

If anyone is looking for good bright and cheap LED's check out lsdiodes.com Their dimmest ones aren't sold in Radio Shack either. They are the same voltage as the ones in the guide that was just posted. I use the 3mm 5900mcd leds and they are great.

[wastememphis]

I ordered a catalog I saw laying on a desk in the Physics department at my school, they have tons of stuff for DIY. It's not a fish catalog but they have any electric thing you could need to do a project involving... electric stuff for a tank (fans, leds, switches, etc...) mouser (www.mouser.com)

[DEdwards]

Mouser is an excellent resource for all kinds of electrical products. They are one of our main suppliers for electrical components at work.