Moonlight suggestions and mounting help

[Etunes]

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for some good moonlights. I have a 75g that i got a light for. originally i was gonna get a light with moonlights in it but it was a really good deal. It was a usa nove extreme with T5s. So it is gonna be mounted with legs so i can have it were things are sticking out of the water (driftwood and such) and make it look natural. This is not 100% but i am pretty sure i am gonna do this.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f25/current-usa-nova-extreme-48-2x54w-125724.html
Nova Extreme T5HOx2 | Current What's Next

My question is is there any moonlights you suggest that would work and what is the best way to put them on the tank? Also do you think i could keep medium light plants with this?

Just so you know i am avoiding CO2 because of money/time reasons.

 

[cjldad]

Hey Ian, I ended up getting these to add to my new light fixture...
If the link doesn't work, search "120cm under car SMD LED Light Strips Blue" on ebay...

They come with double sided tape on them already.. Just wire them up to a DC power supply, I suggest 9v.. You can wait till I do mine if you want to see a pic..

Since you want an open top, do whatever you can to make certain they stay stuck to the light fixture though.. You can be creative with that though.. Maybe a couple dabs of plumbers goop or something every 8 inches or so..

Oh yeah, I'm doing my best to avoid Co2 as well!

 

[Etunes]

Thats a good idea and i have a perfect idea on how to mount those on my tank. The only thing is that i don't know if i will like them completely or how well they will do on a aquarium. So hurry up and get tem on your tank so i can see them. lol.

 

[WhiteDevil]

I take colored LED keychain flashlights in various colors to see what I liked first, green seems to be the color for my tanks.

But those keychains will light up half a 55 on one single LED so its easy to see what it will look like, the less lights the better it looks at night.

 

[cjldad]

I haven't forgotten.. I've been trying to get all my stuff together to change out the fan in my new fixture when I do the led strip.. The strip I linked to actually fits in the fixture very well and is hardly noticable.. I should have some photos this evening...

 

[Etunes]

Yes, i want to see it very much.

 

[cjldad]

Ok, got some photos for ya... I ended up using the light strip in the ebay link and have them running on about 8.5volts.. I can probably go ahead and just run them at 9volts now that I see they aren't overly bright..

 

[7Enigma]

I actually prefer fewer but brighter lights, but it's all personal preference. In my 20 gallon high I have a single blue LED light. I can't remember the exact wattage off hand (~1), but it is bright (bright enough to give me a bit of night-blindness if I get hit by the reflection from the water when looking at my Aquaclear filter!). I have a Coralife 65w CF hood light (CO2/ferts), and it mounts directly onto a slot in the light (if I remember correctly it was from the same manufacturer and cost ~$12 for one light and just needed to be plugged in).

Instead of the consistent dim lighting throughout the tank it gives cones of lighting that, again IMO, is really cool as fish swim in and out of view. I'll try to grab a shot tonight if I can and post it up. If I had your tank and was doing it similarly to my setup I'd get 3 LED's and have them evenly spaced in the tank in thirds.

 

[cjldad]

I had my 29g setup like that with brighter "moon lights" on one side.. I liked the look, but most of my fish stayed away from it and would hide in the shadows.. With the lower light across the whole tank, they don't seem to notice and you can see them still moving around.. Would like to see some shots of your setup though..

 

[7Enigma]

My favorite time is right when the tank lights click off. For about 20 seconds or so it seems as if all the fish crowd into the blue-lighted area. I'd love to get a shot of that but I'm sure it wouldn't be easy and it would probably just be blurry due to a long exposure time.

I think an advantage I have is there are so many #@$! fish in my tank they can't all hide from the LED! So they continuously cycle back and forth in and out of the light.

 

[Etunes]

Wow, i am surprised how good it looks. You would not happen to have a FTS at night with them on would you? What was the process in setting them up? Cjldad thanks a ton. You have helped alot.

 

[cjldad]

Hmm, not sure who you are talking to.
FTS????

 

[Etunes]

Full tank shots. A pic of the whole tank.

 

[7Enigma]

Well I took a shot of my moonlight, though as expected the fish decided to blur the shot near the surface a bit. This is a poor image of what it looks like IMO. But you can kind of tell that the deeper you get the less light. Also forgot to mention that I don't mess with timers, the LED is kept on 24/7. You can't tell it's on during the day and it uses such little power I don't care.

And just in case you cared here's a FTS (the moonlight is about 2/3's to the right in the tank btw), you can see just a handful of the fish at the surface but they are EVERYWHERE....