To moonlight or not to moonlight?

Shufflepig · Feb 16, 2021

Interested in everyone’s opinion on whether or not to run moonlight setting. Is it better to run a period of darkness or better to run a moonlight setting? Any benefits to the coral to run the moonlights?

Frozen Tundra Reef Dreams · Feb 16, 2021

if you have smart lunar that actually follows the real moons cycle, I guess it can especially help with spawning of fish. corals, might be some truth to it also.

xxkenny90xx · Feb 16, 2021

I like a few hrs of moonlight, then total darkness.

Rubberfrog · Feb 16, 2021

My lights have a built in lunar function that simulates the phases of the moon.

Shufflepig · Feb 16, 2021

Rubberfrog said:
My lights have a built in lunar function that simulates the phases of the moon.

I would think if you have the ability to mimic the moon phases it would be a good thing. Full moonlight every night I’m not so sure. Is your moonlight just blue light at low intensity?

Rubberfrog · Feb 16, 2021

Shufflepig said:
I would think if you have the ability to mimic the moon phases it would be a good thing. Full moonlight every night I’m not so sure. Is your moonlight just blue light at low intensity?

Pretty much. It has a very low percentage of white mixed in.

Sailingeric · Feb 16, 2021

Mine slowly goes down and all the way off about 10:30 and total darkness to about dawn, the slowly coming back on

Shufflepig · Feb 16, 2021

If your lights don’t have the ability to mimic the moon phases do you think it’s better to have darkness through the night or full moonlight every night?

Rubberfrog · Feb 17, 2021

Darkness

Chrille26 · Feb 26, 2021

I just got a new light which has a built in moonlight when the light cycle ends, and I dont know if it has any real benefits, but what I do know is that it looks really cool!
I think it adds another dimention to the reef, it is not that super bright blue light but more a faint, dark blue hue that gives the tank a light glow and makes the corals just shine a little bit.

Timfish · Feb 26, 2021

Moonlight is about 4000K and max's out at .32 lux (a lot less than 1 PAR) at the ocean's surface. Every blue LED I've seen used for moonlight is both brighter and the wrong color temperature. If you are doing it for yourself I would suggest going with the dimmist blue light you like. If you are doing it for your corals I would also suggest matching the moon cycle besides color temperature and intensity.

reddogf5 · Feb 26, 2021

Timfish said:
Moonlight is about 4000K and max's out at .32 lux (a lot less than 1 PAR) at the ocean's surface. Every blue LED I've seen used for moonlight is both brighter and the wrong color temperature. If you are doing it for yourself I would suggest going with the dimmist blue light you like. If you are doing it for your corals I would also suggest matching the moon cycle besides color temperature and intensity.

This. If you really wanted to mimic moonlight, you would use the smallest white LED that exists, and probably tone it down a bit, and follow the moon phase. Clams spawning is the only thing I have every heard directly tied to moon phase though. If you really wanted to induce spawning, I think controlling the temperature to a yearly cycle would have far more impact.

FortLivingRoom · May 17, 2021

Timfish said:
Moonlight is about 4000K and max's out at .32 lux (a lot less than 1 PAR) at the ocean's surface. Every blue LED I've seen used for moonlight is both brighter and the wrong color temperature. If you are doing it for yourself I would suggest going with the dimmist blue light you like. If you are doing it for your corals I would also suggest matching the moon cycle besides color temperature and intensity.

reddogf5 said:
This. If you really wanted to mimic moonlight, you would use the smallest white LED that exists, and probably tone it down a bit, and follow the moon phase. Clams spawning is the only thing I have every heard directly tied to moon phase though. If you really wanted to induce spawning, I think controlling the temperature to a yearly cycle would have far more impact.

Do y’all think warm whit would be better than cool white? I currently have my lunar phase like this

Timfish · May 17, 2021

Here's Dana Riddle's article on moonlight. It seems simple either/or equation to me, if you are not going to duplicate moonlight's spectrum and intensity for your fish and corals then you are setting up your night time lighting for your benefit and it pretty much is what you want to look.

litenyaup · May 20, 2021

I have always had moon light in my tank. I use two icecap single led lights. I have had these for 10 years and still kicking. I cannot remember the nm of the led but believe it’s a 1w diode. With these two it produces just enough light to see in at night but not to keep the fish “awake”. I tried to look these lights up and cannot find them at all. I have never had any ill effects from running these and have zero full darkness. I believe that moon lighting does need to be extremely low intensity as to give fish a resting period. Pictured is one of the two I run, and my tank with them both on by themselves.

redfishbluefish · May 20, 2021

I was excited when I purchased two four foot IceCap moonlight strips. I would able to see my tank at all hours of the day and night.

They were fairly bright, and what I quickly noticed was that my fish were not sleeping.

So what I ending up doing was to simply use these as my early morning and late evening lights, right before lights go totally out. My fish have darkness through the night so they can sleep.

ca1ore · May 20, 2021

FWIW ....

I am using the Apex LSM. A few years ago, I replaced the blue LED in one string with white. To my eye, less natural looking underwater than the blue so I switched back. I do put masking tape over the diodes because they are too bright.

Calm Blue Ocean · May 20, 2021

On my 50g I run a really faint moonlight from about 4:30am until 7am when the lights start to ramp up, then again from 6pm until about 10:30pm. The lights are low enough that all the night life comes out and the fish go to bed but lets me enjoy the tank a bit more during my waking hours. I have a pair of AI Prime 16s which have a more natural white moonlight. Since the moonlight is for me I don't activate the lunar phase option.

My 10g nano is a different case. I have a yasha goby that seems to panic in full darkness so moonlights on all night. Corals don't seem to mind so far so if my fish needs a nightlight she gets a nightlight! The light on this tank is a Spectra Aqua Knight V2 so no dedicated moonlight, I just put the blue on low.