Adding moonlights?

[CaliforniaCrisp]

So while the wife was out of town I did tank overhauls. I moved all three of my tanks out of my bedroom into the living rooms. So it was the perfect time for upgrading.

I added moonlights into my 29g biocube (rapid led 4x LEDs) it seems really bright. Is this an issue? Are moonlights even valuable to the coral or is it more of an irritant to the fish and stuff. I don't like light when I sleep. Haha!

I love to watch the tank now at night. It's like 24 hours of non-stop action this way. But is it needed? Or is it going to harm the tank. I don't want to try and fix something that isn't broken.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I too have very bright moonlights with the though of extending my viewing pleasure. However, what I noticed was my Hippo not finding it's bedtime spot in the rocks and my turbo snail not coming out. So I now use the moonlights as part of my early morning and late evening light cycle.

 

[CaliforniaCrisp]

Hmmm, looks like I need more timers. Haha. Good input, I will keep an eye out for those kind of things.

 

[Palting]

Some coral respond to moonlights as if it's just light, some don't. I have 6 1watt blue LED's in my 150. I used to have them on all night. Then, I noticed that the zoa colonies were not opening synchromously during the day, neither did some mushrooms. It looked weird. So, I timed them to be on by themselves only for a few hours, and the tank still gets 12 hours of total darknes. Tank looks much much better, with whole colonies opening at the same time. Tank still looks cool late evenings with just the moonlights on, without the negative effects of having them on all night.

 

[CaliforniaCrisp]

Some coral respond to moonlights as if it's just light, some don't. I have 6 1watt blue LED's in my 150. I used to have them on all night. Then, I noticed that the zoa colonies were not opening synchromously during the day, neither did some mushrooms. It looked weird. So, I timed them to be on by themselves only for a few hours, and the tank still gets 12 hours of total darknes. Tank looks much much better, with whole colonies opening at the same time. Tank still looks cool late evenings with just the moonlights on, without the negative effects of having them on all night.

Cool. I will have my lights come on at 12pm-8:30, the moons come on from 8:30-10:30 and then back on at 6:45am-12pm. And go from there. That schedule will give me maximum viewing time and should give the coral a decent amount of time in the dark.

If I notice weird patterns I shall shorten the time on and off.