Lights - Vision Hazards?

[PotatoPig]

So, looking through some light vendors there are shades available for the lights to prevent spillage, but also mention about how this will reduce hazard to kids vision if they look into the lights / prevent them looking at them.

This isn’t something I’d considered before - assuming the actual lot area stays in the tank is there an eyesight damage risk if people (especially kids) look at the lights from outside the aquarium?

 

[blaxsun]

I think as long as you're not staring directly up/into the lights that's best, so light shades will definitely reduce this. Not going right up to the glass also helps.

 

[Bpb]

Kids are getting just as much if not more short wave blue light exposure from tablets, vr headsets, or (not as common nowadays) outside from the sun. The dangers of reef tank lighting causing retinal or lens damage are heavily overstated. Usually by people who have no real understanding of how/why short wave photons actually cause damage. It’s just someone adding attractive language to help sell their 3D printed goods.

Fwiw I think light shades are great because light pollution from reef tanks is annoying more than anything. Dangerous? Hardly. There’s almost no UV coming from all but a handful of metal halide products out there. Leds used as we use them are perfectly safe.

Now there is evidence that blue light exposure in the evening can mess with circadian rhythm/brain chemistry which can make sleeping difficult, but no different from people who stare at the tv or phone while trying to fall asleep

 

[Bpb]

Just for grins I pointed my par meter directly at the lights from the approximate eye level of my 6 year old and got about 5 ppfd. The intensity in the tank under the lights is about 450 ppfd at the top of the rocks. Safe to say due to the distance, of center axis orientation, and light-scatter at a child’s eye level, even looking directly at the lights is negligible intensity-wise