Moonlight

[TheThingIs]

Hi guys :)

Let's kick off with a healthly debate over dsb's......erm no maybe not :D

Mark is part of the panel????? pffffft you fools!!! lol only kidding :)

I originally posted this in the advanced section and well apart from a few theories here and there I don't really think an answer was given. So if you don't mind, I would love a more detailed answer and specifically more of an answer based on experience.

Why have moonlight?

This question has been prompted by a recent post from SiG which brings me to question the use of moonlight. Do we really need it, is it beneficial or a potential problem? Fish require dark to settle properly, corals and inverts too. Life changes from day to night and without dark then those nighttime critters that appear won't be happy. Using moonlight has the potential of causing mass spawning which could wipe out everything in your tank. I've always heard that it's never totally black on a reef so moonlight is required especially with a nem so the fish won't accidentally fall foul to one. Is it really tho? On my last tank (10yrs ago) I never had moonlight and I also had carpet and malu nems, never lost a single fish and everything was very healthy. I've popped moonlight on my current tank, 9 x blue led's, and it does indeed look stunning at night, but is it right?

Plus, without covering the tank, there is also alot of light going off and on from your room lights if the tank is in a fairly busy location, like a living room. What about this causing issues?

If moonlight is needed, then what is the recommendation for the amount of light required? Too little and there's no point, too much and you would be causing stress?

Cheers,

Lee

[Reefworks]

I think you have kind of answered your own question Lee. As everyone now knows the lunar cycle is a trigger for some coral spawning events. If you want corals to spawn in your tank then I would look at immitating the lunar cycles, but I am not sure why anyone would want their corals to produce gametes in their tank due to the risk of pollution.
So unless you are actively trying to get your corals to reproduce sexually then I can think of no reason to use 'moonlight' or immitate the lunar cycles.

[17000ltrs]

my only experiance with moonlights was the addition of 4 aqua medic moonlights on my reeftank when i was running the aqua medic computers.

tbh , when i wnet into the tank room when they were in , i still could not see a thing. so when the light computers went , so did the moonlights.

never saw a benifit or a problem when removed.

having said that , i do get quite a lot of natural moonlight above the tank

mark

[TheThingIs]

Well I scoured the web for info on this and got very little. With my last tank I mentioned it to my lfs and their answer was "what's the point" and now you guys are basically saying the same thing. So why are people getting hung up on it as there is always someone asking whether this or that is good to get? Is this one of those "myths" where people have heard that it's needed but then have not done the research to find out whether it actually is needed? I must admit that that is what I have done. Added it because that's what everyone was doing plus it was very cheap to do and then questioned my reasons for doing it afterwards.

replies are working....conspiracy theories put to rest ;)

Lee

[ickypimp]

moonlight is also a nice way of viewing coral fluorecence without actually running full actinic light

[jacksok]

If I might add to this thread....

there seems to be a consensus that there is little point in trying to replicate real moonlight but then again the majority probably don't actually do this. Instead we bathe our tanks with a steady blue LED glow which may be visually appealing but is also unnatural and probably brighter than real moonlight on the reef.

My question is whether there is any evidence of this having a detrimental effect on the tank inhabitants? Corals, other inverts or fish?

Regards,

Keith

[pavlo]

There may be a benefit to having moonlights if you keep an anemone. I have lost several fish the night after I have introduced them. A moonlight may stop a new fish from wandering into the anemone before it gets a chance to learn the layout of the tank.

hth

Paul

p.s I have had several coral spawning events without using moonlights