When to turn on moonlights?

[calgaryreefer]

Hi everyone, I am just wondering how everyone is using their moonlights, I heard ppl say they turn it on pretty much at night times when the main lights go off, and I've also heard that it should only come on during a full moon.

which is true?

[christyf5]

Quite frankly I have mine on all the time as I never got around to putting it on a timer. Its on during the day (and totally ineffective) and then on at night. I've never tried to follow the moon phases or anything, mostly I just have it on cuz it looks "neato" at night :wink:

[chevyjaxon]

24/7 for me as well:wink:

[PoonTang]

I remember reading somewhere that if your moonlights are blue or white then DO NOT leave them on all night. Red lights are OK. Cant remember exactly why but it had something to do with the nocturnal critters in our tanks. I know when i have mine on i dont see any pods or worms. But if i turn them on when the tank has been dark for a little while you will see all the little critters scatter for cover.

[christyf5]

My moonlight is so incredibly dim, and it also has 4 ft of tank to cover (which it certainly doesn't). That it doesn't really affect anything. Really, you have to get close to the tank to see anything. Its not even as bright as a dying flashlight :razz:

[PoonTang]

My moonlight is so incredibly dim, and it also has 4 ft of tank to cover (which it certainly doesn't). That it doesn't really affect anything. Really, you have to get close to the tank to see anything. Its not even as bright as a dying flashlight :razz:

I have an Aqualight Pro with the 4 LED moonlights. It is actually fairly bright and OOOOHHH the colours are so beautiful.

[christyf5]

OH cool, mine is about a billion years old (well okay maybe 4 or 5) and I just run it because the double faced tape its attached with is pretty damned strong and I couldn't pry it off the hood (I think I may have supplemented it with crazy glue :razz:).

I'll call mine a more "subtle" cool then :cool:

[PoonTang]

Well then I'm sure that your frag's would be far happier in my tank. When would you like me to come over and get them?

[rstar]

I recently just purchased some moonlights for my tank, it came with a niffty 29.5 day timer which goes through the moon cycle from full moon to new moon, it doesnt shut the lights off it just dims them until there is no moon then gradually increases the intensity back up to full moon pretty niffty little gadget, i really enjoy watching the reef at night!

[JDigital]

Mine is 24/7 too.. strange to here about that thing about critters not coming out..

[dstasiuk]

Mine come on when my photo period ends. I don't know if there's any validity to my worry, but the room my tank is in is VERY dark at night. I have a large green carpet anemone, and have always figured a little light might help some of the other critters to not mistakenly "blunder" into it in the dark...

[slakker]

I do a 12 actinic and 12 moon with 8 hours of MH during the actinics. I also stagger the 2x250W MH by 2 hours so there's a "high noon" period for about 4 hours. I use a Neptune to control it...

So the Actinics come on at 9:00AM and off at 9:00PM. The moons come on at 9:00PM and off at 9:00AM. 1 actinic comes on at 11:00 AM and off at 5:00 PM. The other actinic comes on at 1:00PM and off at 7:00PM.

I works quite well I think...