UV Light in Aquarium

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Vyper

AC Members
Dec 26, 2004
155
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0
Manchester, UK
Hi All

I need some advice on UV light/Blue Strip light. I went into my local pet sotre yesterday and asked the guy about creating a moon light effect in my tank, the purpose of which is that I have a catfish that hides alll day and I basically wanted to see him at night in my tank moving around, plus I wanmted to see what the rest of my fish got up to at night, I wanted to simullate a moon light effect and was told a UV/Blue Strip light was the answer and that if I just had this UV light on the fish would assosiate this as moonmlight and would therefore go about there usual nocternal activities, is this correct ?.

Also how does UV light differ from sunlight, I realise it's only one wavelength of colour that the sun emmits but I thought that UV light from the sun was the big contributer for green algae, hiow does me having a UV light in my tank not trigger off massive algae blooms ?.

Also I got told that fish can't see the colour red, the guy in the pet store said that if I really wanted to see what was going on at night and didn't want to even bother creating a moonlight effect i could use a red strip light and as far as the fish were concerned it'd be like there was no light on in the tank at all, any truth to this ?
 

Blackghostknife

Lila's Boo
Jan 14, 2005
22
0
0
42
DC
well I have 3 Black ghost knifefish and as most know they are extremly senctive to light i have tryied just about every color light and all differant strengths the best thing ive found is a black light i got a actuall aquarium black light not that its called that there. it allows you too see your fish clear as day as long as your water is clean and clear it does cause it hard too see if your water is cloudy mine was for about a week couldn.t see 2 inches in the glass with the light on but i rehooked up my uv sterlizer with a filterpump it cleared it up in a day think my filter bye itsself was just not cutting it. sorry to get off topic but neway under the black light my BGK's are amazeingly active always on the move and playing with oneanouther rought playing like teenagers. so if you want too see your night time fish add a black light hooked up and just add some floating plants your night time fish will love it i promise.
 

tinister

AC Members
Dec 11, 2004
38
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0
EL Wire as Moonlighting

Hello -

I have a Target Puffer that does NOTHING during the daytime, AND does nothing if I have the overhead tank lights on.

I was going to buy a moonlight attachment or unit, but the ones that looked decent were a little too pricey.

So I dug around and found a pretty good and relatively inexpensive solution: EL Wiring

You can order them from their site. It's basically a flexible neon-like lighting that can be pretty bright. You can order by the foot, or you can get ready-to-use kits. The kit I got is this one:

http://store.yahoo.com/glowingstuff/elwirehomekits.html

I got it in Blue - but you can get in Red, Green, White, etc.. The kit gave me 5' to work with - so I just mounted the tubing inside the lighting housing in my two tanks and it works like a charm.

Plenty of light to see what my Target (and my Pignose now) are doing when the lights are out. And both puffers don't seem to be bothered by the light at all.

I recommend the kit with dimmer and adaptor ($48.25 with shipping).

It works for me. Tin
 

elgrecoverde

AC Members
Dec 14, 2004
25
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tinister

AC Members
Dec 11, 2004
38
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0
Yeah. I originally thought about using LED Lights. Coincidentally - EL lights are also used for under-car lighting effects. Which means they are weather proof and durable enough to withstand road debris.

You should definitely give it a shot. I'm tempted to try the RED EL (I have the Blue).

ttyl - Tin
 
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