Aquarium Moonlight

Have you ever wondered what is happening in your aquarium at night, after you turn out the lights?

It's actually kind of amazing the activity that happens at night, especially if you have a saltwater tank with lots of invertebrates and corals!

Here I have documented the steps necessary to create a simple, low-cost moonlight that you can place above your aquarium to simulate the natural moonlight that fish would experience in the wild. This will also give yourself, the caretaker more nocturnal viewing options.

Note: I'll add in some pictures of it on my tank when I get home tomorrow!

Step 1 Gather materials

To make this moonlight, you will need some simple materials, I will list the materials I used, but feel free to modify this if you have other materials around your home that would serve the same purpose. You don't even have to use the same LEDs I used... Some people use all blue, some use all white, and my thought is that if I put in the UV LEDs I might get some cool fluorescent action from the soft corals.

Materials:
1 T-8 fluorescent tube holder (available by the fluorescent fixtures for $3 at Home Depot)
1 piece of 8x10 1/8 inch acrylic ($2 at home depot)
LEDs:
2 White 5mm LEDs (radioshack #276-0017 for $2. They are 7000mcd intensity, 30 degree, 3.3volt 25milliamp)
2 UV 5mm LEDs (rs #276-0014 for $2. They are 280mcd, 30 degree, 3.2v 20ma)
1 rectangular blue LED (rs#276-0013 for $2. They are 350 mcd, 154 degree, 3.2v 20ma)
1 pack of 47 ohm, 1/2 watt resistors, $1 at radioshack
1 pack of 39 ohm, 1/2 watt resistors, $1 at radioshack (Optional)
1 pack of LED holders $1.50 at radioshack
1 length of extra T-5 networking cable or phone cable
1 extra power adapter. Mine happened to be an old Samsung cell phone charger, model TAD037JBE. It takes my 110volt AC and changes it to 5v DC @ .7a.
1 Styrofoam plate

So total, I spent about $15 in materials, assuming you have some small gauge wires around your house and an old power adapter.

Remember that unless you have a 5volt power adapter you must change the resistors out... for example, if all you can find is a 9 volt power adapter, that will work, but you will have to buy resistors with higher ratings or else you will overpower your LED's and they'll burn out. If you need to re-calculate your resistance, use a web calculator like this one: LED Calculator

Tools you might want:
Scissors
E-tape
Soldering iron
Hot glue gun
Wire strippers
Box cutter

Comments

[joerice01]

I liked the effect of the white and blue LEDS, but do the UV ones do anything visible?

Also I think this would work well with a LDR circuit to turn on when its dark.

[ajmckay]

The UV ones really don't do much. You can see them, but the fixture would still work just fine without them.

I actually just set up a new tank, which won't have a lid for me to rest this on anymore. So I will probably be making another one here soon. When I do this one, I will have more blues, and dim the whites a lot. I might also experiment with some other colors and a dimmer.

[joerice01]

Sounds cool. Im thinking of integrating this to my Fluro fish lamp, so when I turn the lamp off the LED's turn on and vice versa.

Keep me informed on what you've done/ doing.

Cheers

[origamic12]

"They sell these on ebay that are even water proof and in many sizes for your tank size"

Umm, that's great, but since were on instructables, no one really wants to buy the completed project. That defeats the purpose of this whole DIY website.

[miguelg4u2]

They sell these on ebay that are even water proof and in many sizes for your tank size

[miguelg4u2]

And forgot to say that they range from $10 to $40 depending on size