Keep blues on at night or keep tank dark

[1stNoel]

I run mine for 9 hours total (50% for 2 hours, 100% for 5 hours, 50% for 2 more hours, then dark). I use Kessil AP700 units. No complaints.

 

[dragon99]

Aquarium Lighting: Moonlight - A Concise Review of Its Spectrum, Intensity, Photoperiod, and Relationship to Coral and Fish Spawning

 

[_Alex_]

Mine are set on my radion and hydra 26. The radion a on for 3 hours after lights on on nights the moon is out and then hydra some nights are on all nights other nights no light at all. Then next night might come on middle of the night with moon lights.

 

[n2585722]

Not exactly sure how blue lights effect our tanks when our critters are trying to sleep, but studies show that at sleep time, blue lights NEGATIVELY effect humans and other primates.

I use moon lights controlled by a controller. They are 5mm LED's that emit a lot less light than the main lights. I have a mix of blue and white. The intinsity can be controlled for each color seperately. There is not enough light at max full moon to see any better than you can outside under a full moon. The color is about the same as moonlight. I am not sure why this would be an issue since this happens in the wild. Also I am not sure that it is any better than no lights other than to me it seems more natural. So I guess it is more of a personal preference. I would not keep the daylight blues on as those would be way too bright.

 

[mookinpie]

Off

 

[wkscott]

I use moon lights controlled by a controller. They are 5mm LED's that emit a lot less light than the main lights. I have a mix of blue and white. The intinsity can be controlled for each color seperately. There is not enough light at max full moon to see any better than you can outside under a full moon. The color is about the same as moonlight. I am not sure why this would be an issue since this happens in the wild. Also I am not sure that it is any better than no lights other than to me it seems more natural. So I guess it is more of a personal preference. I would not keep the daylight blues on as those would be way too bright.

I'm sure that no harm is being done. Take a look however at dragon99 's link above. The actual spectrum of moonlight is mostly RED with very little blue. Many of us are carefully mimicking the phases of the moon without considering the spectrum being delivered. This is probably because to the human eye blue makes our corals appear florescent, while red light would make them look dull.

 

[n2585722]

That is intresting. I have an equal amount of red moon pods as I do blue and white. I just have not run them. I will add some red in the mix.

 

[Wh00pS32]

I leave blue on 1% all night, the reason for this is my mandarin totally freaks when the tank goes dark, he tries to jump out and crashes into rocks. Leaving the blues on 1% solves this and he's calm and happy. Other fish seem fine with it and sleep well.

 

[Hans-Werner]

Like already mentioned here by others blue light disturbs corals. Corals and zooxanthellae are extremely sensitive to blue light, the human eye is not. If you really want to see something, I recommend to use white light because it is meant for your eyes and not to prevent the corals from resting. Scientist use red light to watch marine animals undisturbed. Orange red, white or green light should be well suited, I would not recommend dark red (far red, 650 - 700 nm) light because it also has physiological side effects like blue light.

 

[lou dog420]

I have lunars running off my apex but I use them more to compliment the dusk/dawn effect. They come on 2 hours before my kesils and ramp from 0 to 100%, stay on all day at 100 and ramp back down to 0% 2 hours after kesils go off. Tank gets 8 hours of complete darkness. I have also noticed polyps do not extend until tank is completely dark, then its like a full on polyp party!!!

 

[joeyrm7]

I keep them off as the only benefit that I can see is for us to view and not the for the corals or fish. It gets pretty dark in the ocean at night

 

[ycnibrc]

if it's complete darkness then it's not good for your fish. They will jump more often therefore they could injure them self or worse jump out of the tank. Out in the ocean the moon do give a little light for them to navigate at night, most fish don't stay in one place and sleep.

 

[wkscott]

if it's complete darkness then it's not good for your fish. They will jump more often therefore they could injure them self or worse jump out of the tank. Out in the ocean the moon do give a little light for them to navigate at night, most fish don't stay in one place and sleep.

Almost all of the reef fish that we keep actually DO stay in one place most of the night. In fact, once our fish have selected a safe hiding / sleeping place, they will typically return to it every evening at dusk.

 

[Jay_M]

Did anybody see the super moon last night? If you were not in a city, and could escape the light of town you would have noticed that it was basically daylight outside the moon was so bright.

I'm not saying that I'm 100% for lights on 24/7, but would say that a reef is in total darkness sometimes yes but is very much pounded by moonlight also.

You can google night diving/ snorkeling and find pictures that you'd think was the middle of the day..

Again I'm not for lights on and I'm not for lights off, just something to think about.

Another thought is, almost nothing is immediate in the reef tank, so is giving coral a break every night absolutely required or is giving coral a break once a month, similar to lunar cycle, all coral needs?

I am not for one or the other 100%, these are just points that I ponder on from time to time.

 

[Empress]

My 8 footer has blue lights only on one end of the tank at night. My sailfin is a night owl and likes to cruise the waters. So I leave the light on low just for him. Love [emoji173]️ that fish [emoji226].

 

[Sharvey103]

Off at 11 pm. Ambient room light as sun comes up and lights start to cycle up at 11 am.

 

[Brew12]

I think this would be better asked in 3 different ways.
Blue lights, moon lights, or off.

Not all blue lights are moon lights. Some people use blue lights as moon lights. This can probably work ok with dimming fixtures but not so well if blues stay on at high intensity.

I turn my moon lights on at 5am, blues start ramping up at 6am whites start ramping up at 7am. Whites ramp down at 6pm, blues ramp down at 9pm (they stay on strictly for my viewing pleasure), moon lights off at 11pm.

 

[Empress]

This will probably sound crazy, but I have blue LED Christmas lights dangling from the ceiling above my tank and I never turn them off. It gives a very nice warm glow when it's dark out. Not overly harsh or too bright and they're cheap as can be.

 

[Brew12]

This will probably sound crazy, but I have blue LED Christmas lights dangling from the ceiling above my tank and I never turn them off. It gives a very nice warm glow when it's dark out. Not overly harsh or too bright and they're cheap as can be.

Did we change hobbies all of a sudden? I didn't think anything could be cheap with reefing!

 

[johnsamm7]

I have the Fluval 2.0 and they dim it's just blue and white leds I could dim the blue pretty low to almost off idk if there considered moon lights or not