at night ... ?

[monkiboy]

pardon my ignorance but i was curious if at night ...

- do folks keep their actinic lights on?
- do folks turn some/all of their power heads off?

i have a lot of flow in my 46g tank during the day (two 1050 koralias and a 1" PVC overflow) and i thought maybe it would be nice to turn the power heads off and just have the flow of the overflow and give the fish a break during the night.

 

[beeguiles]

I keep my moonlights(blue lights) and powerheads on at night. My fish don't seem to mind it.

 

[Toolman]

Without sounding like a wise guy........The Ocean is always moving and unless there is a lunar eclipse the moon shines all night long :mrgreen:

 

[marcah]

I wouldnt leave actinics on but if you have moonlights then yes leave them on.. powerheads, dont worry about them fish always can find a place to hunker in for the night..

 

[Smitty]

I agree...turn the actinics off at night...but the powerheads can stay on.

 

[JustinsReefTank]

+1 everyone..

 

[jcegt87]

some people turn some of their powerheads off/down ,to mimic how the oceans calms down at night

i myself add more powerheads, because well, most hurricanes hit at night

 

[monkiboy]

ok, thanks everyone. powerheads will stay on.

i dont have moon lights. i thought that was what actinics were but i see that they are not.

is there something special about the "moon lights" that are sold?

they output the same color (i went to the LFS to see a few moonlight setups) like that my actinics do, perhaps not as many lumens, though.

i have a lot of LED strips and if there isn't an exact spectrum or kelvin temperature, i may just use a faint light/dark blue LED strips and attach them for moonlight use to observe the nocturnal and late-night activity in the tank.

thanks!

 

[Dashtrash400]

I believe they are mostly ascetics they look good therefore people get them. I do personally have 8 blue LEDs on my setup. I imagine any blue LED.will do the trick. You so not have to have them though your tank will be fine without them, also they are nice if people come over at night it makes the tank look good and also for viewing the tank at night without irritating anything.

 

[monkiboy]

I believe they are mostly ascetics they look good therefore people get them. I do personally have 8 blue LEDs on my setup. I imagine any blue LED.will do the trick. You so not have to have them though your tank will be fine without them, also they are nice if people come over at night it makes the tank look good and also for viewing the tank at night without irritating anything.

yes, this is what i'm gathering from the posts that i read.

i had some ikea LED strips from a few years back but they still sell them and i will use them. these are it.

they can be used separately with the four connections or connected together and they have solid lighting, fade in/out of primary colors, or a strobe effect of any of the colors. one of the colors is a deep blue and i will use that mounted to some pvc above the tank and it will do the trick just fine.

thanks everyone!

 

[rskenny]

This is the reply i got from would this work?

Ecoxotic, Inc., Nov-30 22:03 (PST):
Dear Hobbyist,
Thank you for contacting Ecoxotic. Realistically, the 8,000K White/453nm Blue will mimic moonlight the closest.
Sincerely,
The Ecoxotic Team