Night Lighting?

venarius

venarius

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Jan 21, 2009
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Hey guys, do you use any form of night lighting?

Do I need to buy some sort of expensive fancy light, or could I just get away with a strip of blue LED's on a timer?


I'm thinking of night lighting for two reasons...

1) to trick some of the nocturnal species like my bamboo shrimp into being active in the day as well.

and

2) so I can enjoy the tank at night without my flashlight (which I keep by the tank for that very reason!)

so, what do you guys use, if anything, for lighting up your tank at night?
 
venarius said:
Hey guys, do you use any form of night lighting?

Do I need to buy some sort of expensive fancy light, or could I just get away with a strip of blue LED's on a timer?


I'm thinking of night lighting for two reasons...

1) to trick some of the nocturnal species like my bamboo shrimp into being active in the day as well.

and

2) so I can enjoy the tank at night without my flashlight (which I keep by the tank for that very reason!)

so, what do you guys use, if anything, for lighting up your tank at night?
Click to expand...

Yes, I use blue LEDS and strongly recommend them... allows you to see action at night without major disturbance to the specimens. I use plain blue LEDS so if you have a commercial or other inexpensive source for them, go for it; "fancy" lighting not necessary (for a change).
 
Blue Atinic is OK, but if you want to see at night without being seen use red.
 
I've heard of people using red lighting on their Clown knife tanks. Supposedly the fish can't see red light, so they behave like it's completely dark.
 
That makes sense because red is the lowest on the spectrum that we can see (longest wavelength I believe).

Pilots in ww2 before night vision would use red goggles to help them see at night.

Similarly, a red flashlight will make your eyes dialate the least amount, and therefore give you the best vision in the dark.


So red LED's are def an option, but for some reason I still like blue (more 'night' like).
 
I have a light by Current, has a built in White LED. I like it. Just ordered a new one for my 75g with 2 white LED's.

Fish don't seem to mind it, it's still pretty dark. LED's make a nice 'shimmer' effect on water....

I actually considered mounting 2 or 3 white LED nightlights in the canopy of my 75 before ordering the new light fixture.
 
I have two Moonlight LED's that I made a little cheap-o stand for so the LED's sit about 6" off the tank line on my 20gal. I love it and the fish seem to like it too!
 
I have 2 little 4 bulb blue LEDs that I velcro'd to the inside of the housing of my strip light. I just moved them around until I got the effect I wanted, marked and mounted them. The strip and moons are on day/night timers.
 
Sweet, where did you guys pick them up?

Computer store, hardware store (leow's/ home depot), or just Walmart or somewhere?
 
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