moonlights

[chimera]

I got a 4 Watt Coralvue Moonlight. Does anyone else have one of these? If so, what spec's for the transformer do I need?! Reef - you were supposed to let me know but obviously forgot - if you're reading, please post!

[HelifaxNZ]

Hi Folks, Searched for a thread on Moonlights and found this old one. Just tonight have wired up 5 blue leds bought at DSE for $3.38 each. They are 5mm High Intensity 8000mcd Blue LED. Looks really good. What cost the most was the AC Adaptor. For 5 LED's, you need 15v (each light requires max 3.4v). The wavelength range is 465-470nm.

Here's a couple of pictures.

I'm going to find a plastic tube to put the lights in to protect against water splash.

[JoeBlog]

What do you guys think of using the larger 3 watt or 5 watt (if available) LEDs for actinic supplementation instead of using actinic T5’s or whatever?

I’ve checked out the 3 watt version and they seem to be really bright. The only obvious problem is that they are quite focused, i.e. spot light. If it is possible, I think it might be a cheaper option in terms of replacement costs and electricity consumption. Not only that, but they are really small for those of us with limited space over our tanks.

[Feelers]

Yeah I was wondering if you can actually use LED's for the lighting requirements of a tank?

I ask because in my plant bio lab we used an instrument to measure photosynthesis, and that used LED's as a light source.

Obviously you would need heaps of powerful ones, but they are so much more efficient than metal halides. You could even taylor your lighting spectrum to perfectly match requirements.

[HelifaxNZ]

I've seen a few using a strip of LED's and they look really good. Yes they can look quite focused, but if you put them higher up, it is much better. Also you can shape them into a circle so it will look more like a full moon.

[HelifaxNZ]

Feelers, I did see at DSE having white LED lights 8000mcd and I think even brighter. The only issue is whether they have the full spectrum that MH has.

[HelifaxNZ]

Just looked up on DSE website and they have a 5mm White LED 16,000mcd!! 3volt. Not sure what the wavelength is for this. $4.18.

[Thunderstorm]

I posted this a few days ago but it dissapeared so i will post it again, TYhw warehouse has 90 Blue LED's in a Xmas decoration string for $40, the controller has 8 settings including a slow fade out - fade in of 3 sets of the leds so when the LED's are placed right it looks like the moon is shining through a forest canopy being moved by the wind, very cool.

I bought a set and have been playing with them.

Click the pic to see a bigger version.

Looks better with ya own eyes.

[HelifaxNZ]

That looks awesome.

[gregb]

You can widen the beam of the leds by rubbing the lense on very fine sand paper.

[Feelers]

Just went out and got the led moon lights thunderstorm(I was listening 8) ) reccommended. Pretty cool, at the moment its just lighting up my new base rock, without going though water, so a filled tank might look different.

I just laid them all accross the top of the tank and chucked a towel over them, they definately need some sort of way to hold them in position.

Very hard to get photos of for obvious reasons.

They look a lil different from in the photo, maybe a little less saturated.

[HelifaxNZ]

Someone on Nanotank forum was experimenting on using the solar garden lights so it charges while the main tank lights are on and when off, the LED lights light up. Great idea in theory. Been thinking of how I can do this with my 5 LED's. If I made it 6 LED's they will require 18V which is equivalent to 2x 9v batteries, so if I can rig up a solar panel that would charge up the 2x 9v battery, then it should run.

[Thunderstorm]

hiya,

I placed mine over top of my 6ft tank which has a 2ft water depth so gives it a darker blue look but still lots of light to see the fish at night with. Placing the LED's at different heights can give differetn effects, closer to the glass lid gives a spot effect while farther away from the glass gives a more spread effect.

On fixing them to the hood i had thought of small bore water pipe (15 - 20 mm) with a split up the side, place the wires inside the tube with the LED hanging out the side then use tube saddles to fix them to the hood.

[Thunderstorm]

Someone on Nanotank forum was experimenting on using the solar garden lights so it charges while the main tank lights are on and when off, the LED lights light up. Great idea in theory. Been thinking of how I can do this with my 5 LED's. If I made it 6 LED's they will require 18V which is equivalent to 2x 9v batteries, so if I can rig up a solar panel that would charge up the 2x 9v battery, then it should run.

Thats all those solar night lights do, they charge 2 x AA during the day and at night turn on, they have a LDR circuit for day / night switching.

you could wire the LEDS in parallel instead of series to keep the voltage down so you can use normal rechargable batts. or you could do away with the batts alltogether and just use a 240 - 12 or 18v transformer. then you could do away with the charging circuit too, just use the LDR switching circuit to turn them on and off

Click here for a light switch circuit

click here for a kit from jaycar electronics costing $25

hhmmm thanx helifaxNZ you just gave me another idea for me moons lol

[HelifaxNZ]

That's a good idea Thunderstorm. I could keep the transformer, but if I do, it might be easier just to connect it to a timer. The Solar was to help save on a little bit of power.

[Ira]

Or you could also do away with the timer. 6 of them are only going to be about a quarter watt. An extra 12 hours a day will make it .003 kw/hrs per day at about $.18 per kw/hr means it's going to cost you an extra 0.00054 cents per day or $.20 per year. So, if you get a really cheap timer, about $10, that'll take 50 years for the savings in electricity to pay for the timer.

Of course, you'll burn through the LED's life twice as fast doing that but most of them have a life span of 100,000 hours or so before the brightness drops to half. So you'll use that up in 11.5 years instead of 23 years.

Conclusion? Don't bother with a timer. Obviously more leds=shorter time to pay for itself but still well within the "Not worth the trouble" range.