lunar lights necessary?

[mickey]

I just bought a used Coralife PC fixture with no lunar lights. How important are lunar lights?

I know they now have the fixtures with lunar lights included. Has anyone installed separate lunar lights into their fixture?

If so, how hard and how pricey is it?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Not neccesary at all. Check this page out.

http://www.hellolights.com/moonlights.html

 

[hc8719]

i think my lfs owner told me they keep params normal or something?

 

[Guest]

No they do not keep anything normal. Looks only.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Yes. Moonlights don't do a thing to the tank. They are simply for night viewing, if desired.

 

[weekf]

I have those LED night light. I must admit they looks way cool in total darkness. I think it has got something to do with coral spawning.

My LFS told me it helps the coral spawning. He mentioned a lot about how coral spawn and how real moonlight helps the spawning of corals in the nature. In the wild coral spawn only spawn at night and there are only certain times coral spawn and this has got something to do with moonlight shining into the water during certain time of the year well too complicated for me to understand.

He stress however no one will want their coral to spawn in their tank that would be total disaster, so I wouldn't recommend anyone to have this moonlight thing for their reef tank, FOWLR is another story IMO.

Is he right or wrong I have no idea though...

 

[melosu58]

I have my corals getting bigger and mushrooms reproducing with my special moonlights which is my computer desktop screensaver across the room. Never had moonlights and I dont think they help anything but let you view them at night. Nothing wrong with getting them though.

 

[Jarred Darque]

I am still learning stuff in the masive library of saltwater knowledge, but it has been reported and tried, that certain freshwater species will either only spawn, or spawn more frequently and efficiently with moonlighting than without, and normally moonlighting that is on amoon cycle timer.

Seeing as how saltwater is mroe complex than freshwater by a ton, I would have to assume taht while nightlighting is not necassary, for certain species, it will benefit you and them to have it.

 

[melosu58]

Maybe so but someone `s going to have to prove it to me. Do you have any links to verify or any experince.

 

[mickey]

thanks for the link DT and everyone else for their input.

 

[Jarred Darque]

the lin, dont have it, it was on an Oscar site, about breeding them is the main one that comes to mind. imho though, if noone has noticed much of a signifigant differance, than it is not a major factor, on the other hand, there are alot of species wehre breeding in the home aquaria is either a) not documented or b) happens rarely and the trigger is unknown, there, it is possible that something such as moonlighting or some other often looked over factor may be a reason.

 

[afilter]

Ran my tank for years without moon lights. Just added some 3 months ago (way cool).

IMO, they are purely for the aquarist to view at night. The one benefit I see is that now I have shortened my light cycle because I do not have to have the main lights on to see the coral and fish.

I also went with the LED variety(sorry I forget the brand) which can be submerged and suction right to the glass. I think three of them and the power base they plug into was like $30. Single light with power base was $12-15 and $7 per extra light. Three can plug into one base.

The coral and anenome do look neat under them when the main lights are out.

HTH,

 

[Jarred Darque]

I do plan to get some just so I can see the tank at night. I hear people say to take a slashlite and cover it with a red film to view the tanks night critters in their normaly behavior, do they also act normal under moon lighting?

 

[roka64]

Mel, I have read that it does help with spwaning of corals. This is from hellolights.com:
http://www.hellolights.com/726xaqplluse.html
"Coralife's state-of-the-art 'wide-coverage' Aqualight Plus compact fluorescent light fixtures incorporate the Lunar Blue-Moon-Glow LED 470nm light which creates rhythmic glitter and shimmering effects while promoting spawning cycles in corals and reef life."
I am thinking about those lights....

 

[melosu58]

Are you sure that`s not a selling gimmick. LOL Ok I`ll take your word for it. I`ve just never heard that before but I guess I stand corrected. You learn something every day. You hear me JD

 

[roka64]

Are you sure that`s not a selling gimmick.

LOL! It could, very well be! I'll see if I can dig up anything on it.

 

[Devilishturtles]

I still don't really buy into the moonlight and coral spawning thing for a few reasons.

Unless you stay up all night, everynight with a flashlight, you won't know when the spawn takes place! The spawns don't amount to anything, no new corals grow from them (not in our home aquariums). It's been tried, and even the experts can't get the spawns to "filter out".

Coral spawning in our home aquarium can be dangerous...depletes O2 levels.

Aren't stony corals the only ones to spawn? And if so, they would need to be years old in order to spawn, and very large.

It's true, I think that research has been done that proves that corals that are old enough/big enough to spawn do it in certain intervals after moon phases.

So, I believe that in our home aquariums, there is no benefit to having lunar lights.

Here is a cool Q&A with Charles Delbeek.

http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog/jc_delbeek_102701.html