Artificial Moonlight

[Homburger]

I have a 24g Nano with built in moonlight. Since i have my lighting hooked up to a timer, the artificial moonlight has been rendered useless (fellow JBJ nano owners know what I am talking about!). At night, my nano sits in a room that is PITCH DARK. With the constant water movement, is it dangerous to leave the fish in complete darkness? Can they get hurt running into rocks? Is moonlight really necessary?

 

[Aquascaper]

Are you talking about Actinic light or just plain blue lights?
If the light is Actinic then this provides a wavelength of light that is not produced by white lights and is necessary for some corals. Actinic light also brings out the colours in fish and corals but this can be done with standard blue lights too.
As for fish in darkness there's no worries there, fish will hide in the rockwork when its dark and most will wedge themselves or otherwise shelter from the flow to rest.

 

[steelhealr]

Moonlights are not critical unless you are hell bent on mating your fish or getting various inverts to spawn or just want to stare at your tank at night. I have the same problem with my NC. I have moonlights on my FW tank and that's enough for me. If you want your moonlights 'back'. there is a DIY fix for it at nanotuners.com. You'll have to take off the splashshield and reflector and do some rewiring. SH