Reef night light

[DanGlock23]

Hi All new friends!

As I read everything I can get my hands on about all manner of reef keeping - I have stumbled across a site in which the gentleman suggests the following:

"There are also 2x30 watt red incadescents for nightime viewing. The reef takes on a completely different personality at night, with many inhabitants that you never see in daylight coming out and partying hard while you sleep! Some people use a red flashlight, but I wanted to really be able to see what is going on. Not all marine creatures are blind to red light, but many are and nighttime viewing is some of the most fascinating time you can spend with your reef tank."

The above comes from his site @ :
http://www.mindspear.com/reef/lights/index.htm

I too, would like to see what goes on in the reef after lights-out. I'm wondering if I should plan on including red lights in my light package or is this just overkill? Thanks, Dan

[Zmann]

Red night lights are a great addition to any reef tank. The 2x30 watt addition though is a big time overkill. I would put the room and the electric that 2 30 watts bulbs would take up and burn into more light for my corals. Most reefers go with a 9 or 13 watt pc. Playfair runs a 9watt on his 120 and it lights his tank up fine for night veiwing.

[ReeferMac]

Ditto what Zman said... I've got the same 9 Watt Red PC from AH supply (got an actinic bulb too), but hardly use it. It's actually too much light for my 90 gal, and it's not a true Nightime viewing bulb... it's just a white bulb coated with some colorant. So while it gives off a reddish colored light, don't think it's going to be in any special wavelength, etc., ala a professional exhibit at the zoo or something.

You can still see stuff at night if you want, I just put a light on across the room, or use a small flashlight (with a red filter...) to see things. It is pretty interesting. That's the one advantage I find to getting up at the butt-crack of dawn for work every day. On the weekends I get to spend more time with my tank (as my wife, like a normal human being, is SLEEPING), and get to see the noctournal critters a lot better. Unless you've seen feeder tentacles on an SPS, you don't know what you're missing.

- Mac

[Gary Majchrzak]

I use Kevin's method to observe the night shift- ambient room light or a flashlight.I have seen Dave's 9 watt red light and it is cool -and obviously bright enough as well! :smokin:

[Chucker]

IIRC, LiquidShaneo (a #reefs and board denizen) used one of those flat plate nightlights that emit a green glow with pretty good success.

[cperson]

I just installed a red incandescent nite lite last night, I think it's a 13 watt bulb. Looks pretty cool by itself and the red tint added when the blue actinics are on brings out some different colors in the corals. I used a water proof socket and water proof wire nuts. My total cost, including the timer, is about $15.

[dmorel]

What kind of effect does having a red night light cause on the animals?
I use a small regular old light shinning dimly into one corner of the tank to give a sort of "moon" effect. Since I don't want the tank to be pitch black at night, but doesn't even a 13w bulb give off a fair amount of light?

I gather the red light is supposed to be undetectable to the animals, but I would assume that this isn't actually the case?
Are people using the night light only for viewing, or everynight? Craig mentioned a timer, so in his case I assume this is coming on every night...
-david

[cperson]

I believe "red" light, or some visible light frequencies in the red range, are less detectable than higher frequency (more blue) light. Red light is refracted more then blue light, therefore the deeper the water the less red light there is, the less most reef inhabitance will be effected by it (?) depending on how deep in the ocean they are.

From what I've heard and read, you can use a red light and a special timer to mimic the lunar cycle. The lunar cycle triggers all sorts of spawning, etc. The timer I use is just for visual purposes, but I may get more sophisticated later. I think lunar cycle timers are around $100? I'm sure Todd's aqua-controller can be used to time a lunar cycle.

[ReeferMac]

Pretty much everything I've read concur's Craig. The purpose of the nightlight in about 99.99975% of the installations is strictly aesthetic. Those that do go through the trouble of setting up "phases" of the moon, have reported increased spawnings of all manner in their tanks. Seems many of the ocean's critter's use the moon cycle as a signal.

- Mac

[dmorel]

My question is in regards to the validity of the red light.
The idea is that the red is "ignored" by most of our tanks creatures (with and without bones I presume), but is this true?
Will any ol' red light do or is there something that *should* be used.
I guess I feel like even 13 watts is a lot of light for "night" time, but maybe I am over estimating. I know that both my fish and corals "go to bed" in that they have very different night time activities then day time ones. I wouldn't want to mess with them by adding a light threw them off.


In another thread I was discussing the aquacontroller with todd, and it seems that the built in lunar cycle would be a very cool perk. The thing there is it seems the controller only works with an incadecent bulb, while it seems most people are using PC's for their night lights.

-dm

[ReeferMac]

Well I have to agree with you.. I've only got a 9W PC (or is it 13W's? now I don't know... tiny MF'er) and it most definitely keeps the fish awake when it's on... The "Red" spectrum I think everyone is shooting for is analagous to the red colored lamps we've all seen used in the "Noctournal Exhibits" at the Zoo... This lamp however outputs light at a very precise wavelength.. I forget the #'s, but it's at the far end of the spectrum... Human's can see it, but noctournal creatures, because they're eye's have adapted over the years, for the most part can't. So they think they're in the dark, but we can still see them. I don't think the types of lamps we have available to us can accurately simulate the way those lamps at the zoo behave. The red colored lamp I got with my nite-lite setup, is just a red-colored, white PC lamp. Nothing fancy at all, and gives off a very visible spectrum of light (to the fish and me).

The idea behind a nightlight tho... that's very different - quite the complicated matter to simulate natural moonlight over a tank, as you've rightly assumed. I think that's why the Aquacontroller only works on incandescent bulbs... it needs a dimmable light source in order to accurately simulate full moon and new moon intensities of light. Turning a lamp on or off a fixed interval is no big deal, making some nights really bright, and other's dimly lit, can't be done with flourescents.

- Mac

[cperson]

Lunar cycle is 28 days. H. sapien menstrual cycle is 28 days. That God, what a thinker!

[Gary Majchrzak]

I once dated this girl - ! You shoulda' seen her when it was that time of month AND the full moon was out! I think that is how the term LUNACY was invented ! :mixed:

[dmorel]

Mac,
The thing about the zoo lights and the fact that the light we would probably be using is not the same thing was what I was driving at. I had heard that somewhere before, maybe it was from you :) Thanks for the verfication on it though, I was pretty certain I didn't want to go with a red light.

I need to score a calcium reactor next, but after that I am going to look into getting one of those controllers that todd has, the aquacontroller, and I will let you guys know how the moon simulation feature works out.

-dm