Blue Moon Tube

[oilhands]

I went down to the LFS and asked about a blue moon tube for my loach tank. They gave me a baffled look when I handed them the 24 inch tube I wanted to match. They then went on the ask if I wanted an Atinic tube. I said no I wanted a blue moon tube. Loggerheads.

I went on to describe what I was looking to do and they said I could use the Atinic blue tube solo as a dawn/dusk transition period light. They also suggested an alternative super low watt (3/4 or 1) in-tank LED kits for creating a "shimmering moonscape" and blue happens to be one of the colors you can select for the kit. Apparently you can use this as a dawn/dusk transistion or even leave it on all night if you want to (this sounds like a bad idea, but whatever).

Any suggestions? I held off on making the purchase in the hopes that someone here might have an idea what I need to know. Thanks.

[mickthefish]

if i remember correctly the actinic tube gives of blue as well, its mainly used by the marine keepers.
could be wrong though, Emma's the one to give you info on them.

mick

[zmo63]

I use coralife's LED moonlights, mounted on hinges so I can adjust the angle, siliconed to the edge of the tank (it's not as tacky as it sounds - I'll take some pictures when I'm home).

A friend of mine has blue Christmas lights strung up inside the canopy. I haven't seen it in use though.. I need to ask how he likes it.

[oilhands]

if i remember correctly the actinic tube gives of blue as well, its mainly used by the marine keepers.
could be wrong though, Emma's the one to give you info on them.

mick

The atinic is blue. However it seemed kind of bright for what I was thinking. I have one in a T5 strip in my other aquarium but it is always on at the same time as the full spec tube.

[oilhands]

I use coralife's LED moonlights, mounted on hinges so I can adjust the angle, siliconed to the edge of the tank (it's not as tacky as it sounds - I'll take some pictures when I'm home).

A friend of mine has blue Christmas lights strung up inside the canopy. I haven't seen it in use though.. I need to ask how he likes it.

The Coralife LED was what the LFS guy pointed out as the alternative to the 25W atinic tube. It looks like it has a mounting base thing and a flexible neck with which to adjust the light. The mounting thing is for mounting on the coralife light strip and hence I would need to silicone it as you describe.

Do you like yours? Since I plan on someday expanding to a larger tank for the clowns I also looked at this hub based solution. It looked like you buy the central hub and then buy individual submersible light attachements. These light attachments snake from the hub into the tank and mount inside on the glass or where ever. This would make expanding to more lights possible in the future. Obviously this would be a non-issue with the 25W atinic tube. Thanks.

[zmo63]

I do really like them. I don't have the ones you're talking about though, I have the cheaper version that's only 3/4 watt, and don't have the flexible arm. Mine come with clips to hook them onto the coralife fixture, but I couldn't figure out how to make that work. I wanted the lights at an angle, and when they were clipped to the coralife light, I couldn't open up the lid to the tank.

So I came up with this hinge idea:





I have on on either side of a 55 gallon, and if they're angled properly they cover the whole tank. I have them on the front though, and I will admit the back of the tank is very dark. They're fairly focused lights.

[oilhands]

I do really like them. I don't have the ones you're talking about though, I have the cheaper version that's only 3/4 watt, and don't have the flexible arm. Mine come with clips to hook them onto the coralife fixture, but I couldn't figure out how to make that work. I wanted the lights at an angle, and when they were clipped to the coralife light, I couldn't open up the lid to the tank.

So I came up with this hinge idea:





I have on on either side of a 55 gallon, and if they're angled properly they cover the whole tank. I have them on the front though, and I will admit the back of the tank is very dark. They're fairly focused lights.

Cool pics. The LFS has that model too. I guess the LED is most likely what I'm looking to get then. I'll have to think about which of the three LED setups will mount up better on my tank. Thanks for taking the time to snap those pics and for responding to my request for info.

[Bully]

I've been looking at similar set-ups recently. Arcadia sell a range called the Aqua Brite here, not sure what/if the US equivalent is:

http://www.seapets.co.uk/product-detail ... /1286.html

Basically, these are 5v LED's that require a USB hub to power them, Arcadia sells a single and 4-port USB hub to power up to four of these lights. As the power supply is USB then there's no reason (that I can see) why you cannot use any 4-port hub or beyond. If you have tanks close enough to each other you could get something along the lines of a 13-port hub and have up to 13 of these LED's running from a single power supply, or even running around a room using the relevant USB extensions.

The problem with LED's being point-source lighting is that the beam of light is usually narrow and won't offer the same consistent "spread" of light that you get with a fluorescent tube.

[JWhipple]

I can strongly recommend Odyssea's submersable blue moon led lights. http://cgi.ebay.com/ODYSSEA-BLUE-MOON-L ... 18Q2el1247

I've got a few of these in my tanks , here's one in one of my cichlid tanks...



You can see the blue mixed in with the overhead lights - sorry I have no pic with no overheads on.

[oilhands]

I picked up the 3/4 watt LED light just like zmo63 has installed. It ran $20 at the LFS. I placed it on top of the glass top with it pointing straight down. I need to figure out a way to mount it. I don't have the glass top open very often so I'll need to figure out how best mount it so it doesn't reflect a lot of light into the surrounding room.

I note in another blue moon tube thread http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=14108 that timers for lights can be setup in phases. I currently do not use timers for my lights. Would it hurt the fish for the LED to be on all night if parts of the tank remains dark?