LED Night Lights?

GuZZiZZiT

GuZZiZZiT

the geek shall inherit the earth
Oct 4, 2006
153
0
0
Wisconsin
Ok, i've decided that i need some night or lunar lights for my 125 gallon because some of my favorite fish are most active when the lights are off.

My question is: Should i go with Red, Blue or white colored lights? Are there other factors to consider than just how it will look?

these are the lights i was looking at:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=12760&N=2004+113544

I was going to start with 2 units and see how it looks, maybe add more later.
 
I belive that red light cannot be seen by most aquatic light, but I use a similar sytem to the one in that link and have blue and green lights in my freshwater tank for the same reason as you. The green in my system seems to be a lot brighter and I can see better were they are shining. Not sure if that is just due to the manufacturer's LED lights that they use or if the blue is just not as strong in general.

I believe that that system in the link is probrably much better than mine and would normally be used in a saltwater tank (not that it matters) so I am willing to bet the blue is brighter and would illuminate more for you. I got the impression about the red lights because of a show I saw recently where a scientist was trying to video tape life in the deep ocean, where light would normally not reach, and she used a red light so as not to scare the fish away.
 
I use Marina L.E.D. lights in my tank (1 red, 1 blue, 1 white) and they look great. The fish seem to like the subdued lighting they provide, and they really make the ghost shrimp glow.

There is not much information to be found on the effects of these lights on fish (if indeed there are any significant effects).
I have been told that most fish cannot see the red lighting, but this has yet to be confirmed.
 
I have that same moonlight on my 16g and it works great very bright. I tried hooking it up on my 75g (cycling) and it did work out so well. So I bought a 36" submersible moonlight off ebay for like $20 and it works much better.
 
I've been of the impression by reading some of the threads here on moon lights, and from some of the product I've seen that people are shooting for bright when they should be shooting for a more subtle amount of moon lighting.

Isn't the goal of moonlighting to emulate natural night lighting, and not so you can view the fish? Just seems some of the setups are way brighter than natural moon lighting would ever be.

Maybe it doesn't matter.
 
I'm thinking of buying a little spotlight for each side.
 
The cold cathode lights work really good and spread out evenly. My "daytime" fish still seem to stay pretty active under it so you can tell they can see the light. but they do mellow out a little bit and the kuli loach is out a little more. I use the blue lights cause they seem to look the best for viewing. not sure if red would be better.
 
From doing years of residential electrical, I can tell you that light works the same way as sound. Much like having more speakers gives you more sound saturation at lower decibels, more light sources spread out will give you a more uniform coverage at the subtle levels you need to emulate a brighter night time atmosphere. Think about doing a basement rec room. What's more appealing? A bunch of 8 foot fluorescents or a bunch of soft pot lights spread out 4-5' away from each other? They'll achieve the same coverage, but the pot lights will give you a softer, more enjoyable light level. So, my suggestion would pick the colour you prefer, then put enough LEDs in the tank to illuminate it to the amount of coverage you want. So in summary, think amount of light rather than brightness of light.

All that said - have you thought about black lighting? From what I understand, fish are like us and barely register blacklight on their visible spectrum. I'm considering doing this in my 150, but I built everything myself and it would be as simple as moving one fixture 6 inches one way or the other and adding another.
 
I have the white LED on my 75g. I haven't figured out a way to permanently install it yet, so I slip it under my reflector at night.

I actually point the LED lights UP into the reflector to diffuse the light better, which it does. Very cool effect, and the fish seem to like it.
 
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