Ok Moonlights are blue LED's that are very simple to make. My tank is 22" wide so I went to radio shack and bought 3 blue leds. Light emitting diodes or LED's. Theya re about $3.50 each. I also bought a variable 12v DC power supply but actually a 9v DC one would be perfect.
LEDs have two leads on them one is longer that the other. all you have to do is wire them in series or one short led from one led to the longer lead (post) on the next one and the remaining one on the 2nd led is the short one so it goes to the long lead on the third. I soldered mine together with about 8"'s of wire between them so they are spaced evenly across the tank. All the is left is to take the long led on the first one and attach it to one of the two wires from the DC power supply and the other side to the short one on the third LED this completes the circuit.
I took a piece of 1"x1"x20" hardwood and drilled out holes just big enough for the led's to fit in. But before I mounted them I took my saw (table saw maybe you have one or a friend does and sawed a trough down the lenth of the 1x1x20" board on one side where the holed go thru. This lets the wiring sit inside when mounted on the undeside of my lighting hood. They run when the main lights are off a cast a moonlight effect down thru the water. It just makes the bottom and plants decernable without actually lighting the whole tank up. These leds have about 100,00 hour life span at 3.7v DC but you would be wiring them in series so you have to add all 3 together that means they woudl draw appx 11.1v DC to run at max brightness. I found 9v DC was plenty for the effect I want and it will actually lengthen the life of them even more.. That is like 11 years of continuous running.
As for regular lighting.
I have two 34w Compact flourescents.
One is pink and white
the other is blue and white.
I have two 13w 13" Helios compact flourescents
One pink in middle and the other actinic blue in the extreme front for coloration of the fish.
I have attached a photo of the interior. Thepink light is at this time in the front of the hood but not where it is now. The missing area is where it is now. and the actinic is where the pink one is now. Also where you see the twin white bulb next to the pink one is now blue and white. The moon lights are in the wood piece between the pink and the twin white lights what look like screws are actually the three leds. I can take a close up of them if you want.
It is very easy to make and they really are neat. Makes watching the night action much more interesting.
Let me know if you need any more information. The fans pull the heat away from the tank. This much light can push the tank temp up 7-8 degrees. Before the fans were added they pushed my temps to very high 80s. That with only the 2 34w'ers running. NOw with all running temp climbes maybe 2C. Big dufference.
Thanks
Bob
