Night Time Lighting

[JoeGuzzo]

what kind of light is it that i can add to my tank so at night time i can still watch them but they cant see the light or whatever it is so they think it is still dark out? i have heard red lights and blue lights even black lights i dont know which of any is true. and does anybody know a website i can purchase one from??

 

[justin85]

Blue LED's look really nice.

 

[Bugdozer]

Unlike some mammals, there is no light you can use to light the fish that they can't see (unless they are Blind Cave Tetras) as most fish can actually see a wider spectrum of light than humans can! I know many can see near infrared, including goldfish. Not sure if they can see UV too.
But you can put a nice dim blue LED in as Justin said - right now I'm looking at my fish tank which has a dim blue light and it's very attractive. The fish change behaviour somewhat when this goes on and the bright main light goes off, and sort of quieten down a bit. I guess that depends on the species though. Then when the light goes off completely they find a little spot and just stay there all night until the morning.

 

[JoeGuzzo]

so its agreed that blue LED lights would be the best option? and would you guys know of any good websites to purchase a good strip or bar of lights from by any chance? or bugdozer if you wouldnt mind telling me where you acquired yours?

 

[micko]

If your going for LED's then go for a set that you can dim down. There is a dimmer on the plug so you can do this. You may wish to have it bright or darker.
Ebay is a good place to look, when I had mine running I got mine from a seller in Japan which was cheap but didn't come with a normal plug, it was a two pin plug, it was easily solved though as you can buy adaptors and they're only a pound of so.
You can also make your own if you like, there are a few journals on here somewhere of where other members have documented how they done this. To be honest though the amount of LED's you need is minimal. I used to have 24 in my 350ltr tank and it lit up the whole tank so it wasn't really cost effective for me to make my own.

 

[Geoff-]

I don't like the blue look, and since fish can see it anyway there's no advantage to using blue light.

I used a single white CCFL tube, it takes 12V DC into a small inverter to power the tube. The CCFL is only a couple of watts, and this is enough to throw a dimmer light into the tank - still visible but not overpowering like the main lights. I stagger my lights so the CCFLs run a bit longer in the morning and night than the main lights so I end up with a stepped lighting change - this looks very pleasant.

 

[Primous]

I don't like the blue look, and since fish can see it anyway there's no advantage to using blue light.

Well that's a first? My community goes crazy when the leds kick in and my lemons seem to prefer it to my t5's when it comes to breeding. Not only that but the leds give off 0 heat which is useful for when we have these day long heat waves and the tank (with t5's) is 28C and climbing.

@JoeGuzzo If you're thinking about led moons, search ebay for "virtualvillage" They sell the full led moon kit with no need for assembly

 

[KkAaNnEe]

I agree am not a fan of blue, but I do use a warm white/ yellow strip which looks much better IMO, like sunrise/sunset rather than blue moonlight