What do you think of moonlights?

[Ella_e]

From what I understand (correct me of I am wrong), moonlights are meant to simulate the moon at night which is good for spawning and also beneficial for coral growth. Moonlights are low power blue light that is not perceivable to fish.
When I used to have fish, during nighttime (with moonlights on) the fish would sleep. So perhaps the fish do not see the light.
However, I noticed that if my fixture is off at night (no light what so ever) my anemone closes up completely. With the moonlights the anemone stays open throughout the whole night, and closes up completely around 10am. [my actinic only turn on at 2 pm so that I can actually look at my tank when I get home]
The anemone reacts to light and if I turn on the lights when its closed up completely it will open up. If I put the tank in total darkness It will close up. So does the anemone perceive the moonlights if it stays open through the night?
In my personal opinion the moonlights( 8 moonlight LEDs) are quite bright.

What are your personal experiences with moonlights? Do you think they are beneficial or not? How do your tank inhabitants react to different light?

 

[Sniperhank]

I've heard that it is helpful. I run them on my tank, but haven't seen anything besides being happy about being able to see things after lights out.

 

[Convict2161]

I'm up in the air with then. I have a DIY LED on one side of the tank but don't really use it. I like more of a "spotlight"look rather then the whole tank lit up.

I do feel however that my tank anyway would benefit from a total darkness period. There aggressive enough during the day.

I will also add that when my lights go out I hear ALOT of commotion for a little while coming from the tank but so much when I have moonlights on.

Hope this helps.

 

[mr_X]

I've done both, with and without moonlights, and saw no difference at all. I don't see how moonlights are supposed to help coral growth.

 

[Ella_e]

I guess I will carry out an experiment and take pictures of how the anemone reacts to the different lights.
I will take pictures during several nights of moonlights on, and pictures during several nights of moonlights off. I will also take pictures of how the anemone reacts to the turning on of lights during its scheduled time.
I feel as though the anemone benefits more from a light period and a total darkness period - seems to follow the light cycle a whole lot better (doesn't open and close randomly)
Odd question comes to mind - do anemones sleep? Or at least have a rest period?

 

[Ingy]

I know my fish don't sleep when the moonlights are on. They do sleep when it is total darkness (flashlight peek). So they absolutely DO perceive the moonlights. My moonlights normally go off at 11:30pm except for the 1 time I did a test 'till 2am to see what the fish did. They stayed up the whole time.

 

[Sniperhank]

I've never had an issue with my fish not sleeping with my moonlights on.

 

[jeffaquarius]

Some unwanted algae proliferate uncontrollably when exposed to certain frequency of the light spectrum. The blue which penetrates into deeper water however has a minimum effect on them while corals love it. This is the reason why you run blue longer than the white light in reef tank. As for the fish, it helps minimize the stress on them when your turn on or off the white light since it soften when the blue is still on. My fish love to play hide n seek when the moon is lit lol. It is beneficial for your live stock to have total darkness to simulate the real world with day and night.

 

[mr_X]

You run blue longer than white in a reef tank simply because people try to use that as a morning/evening transition. Nothing more. Photosynthetic creatures need a certain amount of light, for a certain amount of time, and that's it. Running blue lights longer is not helping anything. I've also used hydroponics fixtures over a reef tank instead of the aquarium ones (the difference is there is only 1 cord, and hydroponics fixtures have larger reflectors), and had an immediate on/off for the life of the tank. Fish and corals grew and lived just fine.
I notice on my tank now when the blues go on, fish freak just as when the daylights go on. It doesn't keep them calm at all. The only way you could get that to stop happening is if you used a self dimming LED fixture that did that for you, gradually. It's not necessary though.

 

[JonathanG]

I run my blues at 1% all night and the fish all bed down once the lights dim down to 1% (the lights drop gradually over 4 hours). Do you think there is benefit to having a period of total lights off?

 

[mr_X]

I'm really not sure how low your lights go. a night time is definitely important to fish and coral health.

 

[JonathanG]

I'm using a maxspect razor 27" 1600k . The 1% blue is really low but I can still see if the room is dark. Maybe I'll setup a new profile with everything off for several hours and see if anything changes.

 

[Ella_e]

Last night I had the moonlights on (they have been consistently on for 2 weeks)
Last night he did not close up the whole night and did not close the whole day (today) either. he has decided to move onto the glass about 4 inches away from his usual spot (his usual spot for past 2 months has been on a rock - only moved 2-3 cm a few times - so this is odd.

Tonight after the regular light cycle was over, I turned the moonlights off and he closed up within 5 min (still on the glass though) Currently completely closed up except for 2 puffed up tentacles coming out.


Observations so far: he opens up when actinic go on, then he is fully puffed up during the white lights. Then when white lights go off (actinic on), he remains fully open, and he then remains open while moonlights are on, and usually closes up around 10 am.
However if in complete darkness he closes up completely. So I will say that he definitely perceives light and darkness.
I will see how he behaves through the next few nights in complete darkness.

 

[Ella_e]

According to Mr. Oliver Crimmen, Fish Curator, Department of Zoology of The Natural History Museum
Fish do in fact need sleep - although they do not exhibit the same REM brain patterns, their sleep has restorative properties. Parrot fish secrete a mucus to protect themselves while they sleep.
Their sleep is characterized by reduced activity and thus conservation of energy - however they are still able to react to danger - just takes a slower response rate at first
Unihemispheric sleep refers to sleeping with only a single cerebral hemisphere - exhibited in birds and fish.
As for corals - anything that has zooxanthellae needs a period of darkness for the respiration part of the photosynthesis cycle to take place.

(Which is if a plant is kept in light 24-7 eventually dies - duh I should have known that)

So this brings up the next question: Does coral perceive your moonlights? Does it eventually close up and go into a rest-mode?

 

[Dimdim]

So this brings up the next question: Does coral perceive your moonlights? Does it eventually close up and go into a rest-mode?

+1 i just had a switch on my moonlights tonight i have them set to turn off at 6 30 am. To give them total darkness for a few hours, then natural light slowly creeps in and dampens my room with very soft light, then my actinics will go on at 930 am off at 10 pm

 

[jeffaquarius]

There are aquarists who enjoy looking at their tank with all the flavors that simulates a natural habitat of both fish and corals in the reef . While there are some who just prefer corals and make them healthy and bloom for the sake of the challenge it entails. I am one of the former.

 

[mr_X]

According to Mr. Oliver Crimmen, Fish Curator, Department of Zoology of The Natural History Museum
Fish do in fact need sleep - although they do not exhibit the same REM brain patterns, their sleep has restorative properties. Parrot fish secrete a mucus to protect themselves while they sleep.
Their sleep is characterized by reduced activity and thus conservation of energy - however they are still able to react to danger - just takes a slower response rate at first
Unihemispheric sleep refers to sleeping with only a single cerebral hemisphere - exhibited in birds and fish.
As for corals - anything that has zooxanthellae needs a period of darkness for the respiration part of the photosynthesis cycle to take place.

(Which is if a plant is kept in light 24-7 eventually dies - duh I should have known that)

So this brings up the next question: Does coral perceive your moonlights? Does it eventually close up and go into a rest-mode?

A coral will eventually die just like a plant if it has no night time.

 

[jeffaquarius]

So this brings up the next question: Does coral perceive your moonlights? Does it eventually close up and go into a rest-mode?

I would say it depends on how bright your moonlight is. Human eyes can not measure the intensity of light when it comes to the lower and higher frequency of the light spectrum. In fact infrared and ultraviolet are invisible. The color blue may seem dark to us but its intensity is deceiving. Also, In the real world the moon has a cycle which means half of the month there is total darkness.

 

[Ella_e]

So its been 12 days. I did 4 nights with moonlights, 4 nights without moonlights, and 4 days of white light only.
Without moonlights the anemone (test subject) would generally close up for the night within the first hour of the lights being shut off.
With moonlights on the anemone would stay open for several hours thereafter and generally would closeup a couple of hours before natural daylight hit the room. With the moonlights on and natural sunlights, the anemone would open but would not fully extend.
So I decided to see how the anemone reacts to a very bright white light in a separate tank. If the light is shined upon the anemone (which was attached to a rock - so the nem was 4 inches from the surface) after a Completely dark night, the anemone would detach and try find a slightly darker spot that still receives a lot of light. The light was then put to the side of the aquarium and the anemone found a spot on the bottom of the tank, but still in the direct path of the light.
My final conclusion? I will probably keep the moonlights on for 2 weeks of the month, and 2 weeks off. In the regular tank, the nem was attached to a rock about 8 inches from the surface - so it likes the amount of light that it receives from that area.
When I first received the Condy anemone it was a very pale white with pink tips. Now the anemone ~2 months later is a tan color with pink tips - and it looks a lot more puffed up and bigger. Throughout the 2 months, the anemone always had the moonlights on ad was fed 1-2 times a week. So I will do the 2 weeks on/off and see how that goes.
Haha I should propose this as research at my university! They were already researching how higher CO2 affects inverts, why not this!