Blue Cathode...Moon Lights on a Budget!!!

BoredAgain said:
Just be careful with these...if they are set above 6v over night, most fish can't get any rest. This was researched on another forum. I have mine set on high (12v), but only for 2 hours before lights on and 2 hours after lights out (soon to be just 1 hour), anything else it will be set to 6v.
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Do you have them set on a timer to do that?

I wonder if you could use a power strip like I have (day and night time settings) and use one wall wart at 9v to turn on all day, and then switch to another wall wart tied into the same tubes at 6v at night? Then you could use a standard timer to control the actual day lights and you'd just have the cathodes running at 9v all day to give a little color to the tank as well.

Hmmm.....now I'm thinking. Although this would mean adding the cost of another wall wart and the timer, so around $35-45 probably to have this neat feature.
 
I'm not sure if that would work. I have my cathodes on a timer set to come on for 1 hour before my first set of lights come on and then go off when the second set of lights come on...reversed at night. I have mine set at 12v, but if I ever want them on longer at night, I just manually set them to 6v. With any decent lighting, you wouldn't be able to see any difference in color with the cathodes on as well.

The link in my sig has pics of my setup with the cathodes on.
 
Well I for one won't be trying it. I'm already running out of space in my stand and another timer would push the floor space in it to the max. Need to start mounting stuff to the backwall to save some room.

FWIW here are mine mounted in the new hood I'm building.

Permanently mounted, temporarily wired.
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Powered up at 9v
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Sorry for quality, resized cell phone pics.
 
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3m double sided Automotive Trim tape. I've pulled outer sections of plywood off trying to separate two boards held together with this stuff, and pulled paint straight off of sheetmetal as well. It's not crazy expensive, but with my other hobby (see avatar) I've got some excess laying around. Works great all over the place. Between that and JB Weld it's the best thing out there short of actually bolting/screwing/welding something together in the automotive world. Given that there's next to no weight really being supported and it can withstand temperatures of 120+ on the exterior of a car on a hot summer's day, I'm not worried about it one bit in this fish hood.
 
It's still holding the moulding to my 16 year old racecar so I'm not worried. That's seen everything from -5 degree days, freezing rain, and 130 degree surface temps. Worse case scenario is that I take it back off and try a different method after the tube falls onto my glass top from about 3" away.
 
TipStylez said:
wow, thats bright..
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too bright, imo.

Try using blue christmas lights. THey're easy to install if you have a staple gun, and the LED variety is a lot more energy efficient and has a longer lifetime.

And you cant beat 8 dollars.
 
could i use a white light in a 10g incandescant hood to get better brightness?
 
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