Moonlights, Are They Worth It?

Raul-7 · Post by **Raul-7** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 6:07 am

I tried doing a search on 'moonlights' but found nothing that goes into details about what I was looking for.

I was thinking off adding moonlights to my Zebra tank, but I wanted to know if they would be bothered by it? Or more importantly, would we be able to view thier nocturnal behavior or will they hide everytime comes near the aquarium?

Frontyking · Post by **Frontyking** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 7:41 am

Hi Raul,

I know fish can't see red light and if that's what you mean then yes you can view their nocturnal behaviour.

andrewcoxon · Post by **andrewcoxon** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 11:19 am

they cant see any type of red lights? iv got a penknife with a little red light on the top so could i use this to shine into caves without disturbing them?

Frontyking · Post by **Frontyking** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 5:08 pm

andrewcoxon wrote:they cant see any type of red lights? iv got a penknife with a little red light on the top so could i use this to shine into caves without disturbing them?

I'd say so andrewcoxon. Good luck with the spying and hope it shows some spawning action!

Aiptasia · Post by **Aiptasia** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 8:01 pm

moonlights are usually very weak LED lights that can be added to a canopy or retrofitted to a hood. I remember when they became en vogue with reef keepers about five years ago over at www.reefcentral.com.

The theory is, the moon does reflect a certain amount of sunlight (called albedo, 0.39 to be exact for you vangelis fans) at night, so reefs in the wild are never truly completely dark. Some weak blue light does reach reefs at night. Some reef keepers believe that using them mimics a more natural setting for their corals, inverts and fish, and could be a trigger for noctournal animals, spawning behavior, etc.

IMHO, I don't find them to be necessary, nor would I go out of my way to purchase some.

For diurnal fish, I wouldn't want to run lights 24/7 in any fish room or on any aquarium. But that doesn't mean you have to cut off all lights in the room. Some nervous fish do better when there's some ambient light in the room (discus, for example). Just enough light for them to see, but weak enough to trigger the sleep response. A child's nightlight in the room would be perfect.

For the nocturnal fish, if there's enough ambient light in the room for your eyes to adjust to it after a minute, then it should be enough for noctornal fish to function just fine.

And yes, ambient red light isn't seen by most fish/inverts. Water filters out the red color spectrums beyond eight feet deep. It's one reason why so many deep water sea creatures (such as the vampire squid) are bright red. Just cover a flashlight with red cellophane and a rubber band and you can peer into your tanks at night. Some animals will notice the motion of the light beam and hide, but if you put the flash light shining in one spot and don't move it around (casting a red glow of light into the tank), nocturnal fish/inverts won't see it.

Raul-7 · Post by **Raul-7** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 11:12 pm

Thanks for the responses everyone; but I really don't want a red moonlight - something more natural like the blue LED's readily available.

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 2:36 pm

Raul-7 wrote:I tried doing a search on 'moonlights' but found nothing that goes into details about what I was looking for.

http://www.zebrapleco.com/forum/viewtop ... =moonlight ?

Iknow they can see - or sense - infrared lights. My fish reacted rather strongly when I pointed an IR light into his cave..

They won't see you if it's dark in the room, so yes, I belive you'll see them ferlessly out and about with one of these contraptions

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 1:37 am

I was just about to point to my thread

we're still running it on the same tank in the photos - it happens to be our zeb tank now too - no problems.

P.S. they can see red light. green, blue and IR too - I've been trying.

ours took a couple of weeks to get used to it when they moved in - but are out and about every night with no wories.

Raul-7 · Post by **Raul-7** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:23 am

smithrc wrote:
we're still running it on the same tank in the photos - it happens to be our zeb tank now too - no problems.

ours took a couple of weeks to get used to it when they moved in - but are out and about every night with no wories.

That's just the answer I needed to hear; thank you!

Mindy · Post by **Mindy** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:17 pm

I went into the room one night with a red light to see if I could spy on the zebs but the light freaked my birds (who are in the same room) out so much they went into a total flapping frenzy and screeching. I nearly leapt out of my skin! Needless to say, it spoiled my stealth approach. I never tried it again!

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 4:23 pm

I can just picture you and your flash light sneaking in there and setting off the completely unexpected racket Mindy

Bet the Zebras where nowhere to be seen after that either!

Mindy · Post by **Mindy** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 6:36 pm

I totally blew it. Me and stealth don't mix!

khblock · Post by **khblock** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 9:43 pm

ok, here is a stupid question.

I like the moonlights and use LEDs. Here's the dumb question. Why are most LED lights for aquariums blue?

At first I thought the blue moonlights were for marine tanks and light shown through the depths of the ocean is blue in color. Artificial blue light mimics the light condition of the ocean. I’m probably wrong but it makes since to me.

Anywho, If the moon is white shouldn't we use white lights to mimic moonlight in our tanks? I doubt the moon looks blue in the Amazon. I'm not sure how much moon light can actually penetrate black water conditions. If it did wouldn’t it be green or brown? I guess that would depend on how much light is seen at the depth in which the zebra live. If the source is white why not use artificial white light sources? Why not try lights the mimic light conditions of the Amazon?

Sorry guys, I said I would as one dumb question but actually its four dumb questions.

coralite · Post by **coralite** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:14 pm

if you're looking for an affordable moonlight with fully integrated lunar simulator try the lunar tracker. I have 2 of their 10 lamp kits and i think they are a good moonlight solution[/url]

Moonlights, Are They Worth It?

Moonlights, Are They Worth It?

Re: Moonlights, Are They Worth It?