so since the olympics is here and all the universities in the GVRD is close i have alot of spare time to kill so i am finding things to do. I havent had moonlights for a while on my tanks but started to miss it a little and so i started planning this project a few weeks ago thinking how i want this to be as natural looking as possible and decided i didnt want blue LEDs instead id go with white ones to replicate what the corals would be exposed to in nature. With all the planning done (took i think 15mins) i went out and bought all the parts and went to town and got it all finished today.
So.. Parts
3x 1/4W white LEDs
1x old cellphone charger with 5.5V and 550ma output
1x acrylic tubing i think its 1" thick
3x daily contact lens casing (for the reflectors that i dont think does anything)
total price? i think its less then $5 if you count out the contact casing that you can keep.
I forgot to take progress photos but i think a project like this shouldnt be too hard. I chained up the LEDs in series so i could avoid the use of resistors, the LEDs are a little underdriven but thats fine for this project as i wanted to keep things dim as the tank is in my room. Cut the acrylic tubing a little longer (1mm) than the 2 MHs beside it and the pressure from the pendents keep the moonlight tubing held pretty well.
heres some pictures.
and what the tank looks like: (in real life its about 10x dimmer)
