Moon lights

 More and more I am hearing about people running moonlights. Does anyone have any experance with these lights? I am looking for some honest feeback do they make a differance? Also who was that won those awsome lights at the last meeting? Maybe if they are on this forum they could give me some feedback. They definetly look cool but do they work?

I am the one who won the "Moon Light", ya the big awesone one at the Mark Weiss seminar, I dont know Mark or his products all that well but I can tell you that the light I won was very poorly constructed. The transformer could not handle the capacity required by the the lights. It reached about 150 degress (I dont need a house fire as a result of any light) One of the two lights did not work after the transrformer heated up. I have not operated the light for a extensive peroid of time, so I can not speak of its effectivness on the tank inhabitants. I can tell you that astheticly its really cool. It "dapples" the the water, and looks great.

We were able to research the origin of the light. If you want to have this light, I would suggest that you log on to http://www.lumileds.com/ and order one, I got this address from the part marking on one of the two blue "star" lights glued to the extrusion inside the light. Construction of this light is fairly simple, these lights are less than 1/2" in diameter (light and housing) they are desinged to glue (expoxy) to any surface. Im not sure that $250 must be invested to obtain one of these lights. Try visiting the web site, see the light and decide for yourself...

Chris & Liz

 

pistonfister, I can send ya an e-mail when it is done.  Don't know when that will be cause money is tight. In the meantime here is a link to a thread on nano-reef that is packed with good info if you wade through all 3 pages and follow the links that are on there...

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6897&highlight=moonlight

Also, I saw the ad for the Marc Weiss moonlight on page 97 of the March FAMA. Interesting claims... 

Wade,

I have only seen a few companies that make moon lights, what company made yours?  Have any pictures of the tank with them on?

Dave

I will try and post some pics by tomorrow of the lights.  I do not remember what the brand is.  You can call Shawn at Aquatica if you want 224-1515.

I believe the one that broke was the one that Mark Weiss brought a couple months ago, not the ones from Marine-Aquatics.  I am still contemplating picking some up from the Marine-Aquatics guys.  Anyone else using them?

Here is a pic of my moonlight setup.  It's made up of 2 12" cold cathode tubes bought from PCMods.com

It looks great in person!

Cold cathode tubes are just tiny fluorescent lights (usually about 8” to 18”).  They come in a variety of colors, run off of 12 volts, and are designed to light modified computer cases with windows.

http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=00-882-001-05.JPG/00-882-001-06.JPG/00-882-001-04.JPG

After the DIY meeting I made an effort to make my own "moon lights". I purchased 10 of the 30° blue LED and wired them to an old cordless phone cable. I encased it all in some wood I had hanging around and painted it white. It's not as bright as I would like it, but I love the effect it has with what I've got. (There are lots of pictures so be patient )

I've got a glass top on the tank, so I didn't to cover the bottom of the box.

The power cord comes through the wood and the positive goes into the black box shown above. I purchased that at RadioShack and it came with what is called a PC board. (It has tons of little holes for wiring and resistors) I sodered in the positive cord and connected it to 10 wires exiting the box. Each wire is then sodered to a LED. A 2nd wire is sodered to the LED and sent back to the box (all wires were shrink wrapped - the power and the ground wires are the big black cord coming out of the left part of the black box) Each ground was wired to a resister and all resisters were wired to a common ground which exits the black box.

The ground was wired to a switch and the switch was then attached to the negative on the power cord. I knotted the inside and outside of the power cord so it won't pull out, nor push in on the components.

The LEDs were then attached to the side of the box using two zip ties (Hey...they were handy). You can see in the switch picutre where I dug out the wood so the zip tie would lie a little flatter. I siliconed the black box where the wires come in and around the seam. I also put liuid electral tape on the switch connections (the green stuff you see in the above picture) Using this setup I can position the lights and point them where I want in the tank. 10 isn't near enough IMO as they don't overlap enough. I would like to add more, but have not had the energy just yet. I simply stuck it over my tank and put the power cord on the same timer as the sump light so they come on a little before the tank lights go off. (This is daytime so my NOs are on)

The whole thing cost me around 25$ (LEDs, resisters, switch, shrink wrap, box, and hinges) and only a little more if you price the power cord, wood, screws, paint, wire, sodder, gas.

Any questions...feel free to ask Sarnack (my advisor and hero on this project) Or me if you really want. Thanks WMAS!!!

I saw Gonzo's moonlights last week and they look really good.  Just to back it up.