Cheap thrills for reef nerds

Rikko · #1 01-23-2005, 08:20 AM

Found a new toy and it's the cheapest thing you'll ever find in the hobby. It'll cost you a dollar and you just need to be in the dark.
(Get your mind out of the gutter)

Many dollar stores sell "counterfeit bill detectors". They're basically a small LED flashlight with a UV LED in them instead of a white light. The idea is that you shine it on a dollar bill and see the watermarks and stuff. Boring!

Shut off all your tank lights and make sure the room is dark. Now wave the thing around your tank and watch what your corals look like! I have 2 different torch Euphyllia in my tank that I thought wre fragged from the same parent. Not the case! The tiny frag absolutely glows. The larger one doesn't do much of anything. Brown button polyps shine in the center and look rather pretty (albeit you have to catch them before the shrink up for the night). My hammer Euphyllia shines a little bit but isn't that exciting. Small porites? Nothing. Candy cane Caulastrea? It absolutely explodes with phosphorescence. It honestly lights up the whole area around it. My fox Nemenzophyllia does the same.

I've seen them at every Dollar Giant I've been to, and at one non-chain dollar store as well. Makes for a fun detour before bed.

Snappy · #2 01-23-2005, 09:33 AM

my LED lunar lights do the same thing

michika · #3 01-23-2005, 04:01 PM

Sweet! I'll have to try it!

BrainVat · #4 01-27-2005, 03:05 AM

If you think the led light is cool, try putting the entire tank under UV-A with no light. You can get a 48" 40w blacklight bulb at home depot for 24$

Check out my thread on using UV-A to stimulate fluorescent pigment growth.

http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13786

Rikko · #5 01-27-2005, 03:10 AM

Hey, cool! I've heard that the UV fluoro tubes run a lot warmer than "normal" tubes. Is that true? I can't see how it would be.

I think for a permanent fixture I'm going to use 2 of the UV LEDs (I bought a bag off ebay as well but never got around to hooking them up anywhere) and sand them down to get a broader beam and leave them up top. Not precisely moonlighting but pretty fun.

BrainVat · #6 01-27-2005, 03:51 AM

I don't notice any heat difference. They definitely are dimmer (you can hardly tell they are on when other lights are on) but they will induce your corals to produce defensive pigments. These reflect UV light back at a visible wavelength. One of my brain corals goes bright blue when the blacklight is on by itself. The glow emitted from that one coral is enough to make the rest of the tank visible with the other lights off.