Three of the 18 moonlight LEDs in the canopy.

There is plenty of information on do-it-yourself moonlighting solutions available if you google the term. I am happy to do electrical work, woodworking and all kinds of other handy things, but basically when a solder iron and I come together, it's like two worlds colliding. I can never get a decent connection, and the wires tend to fall apart before I even finished the project. Soldering is just not my thing. So I did what you usually have to do when you can't do a project yourself - I threw money at it. I found the people from the Lebos via their auctions on eBay, and the moonlighting solutions they were offering on their site seemed just perfect for my purposes. So I ordered their 'Dimmable Moon Light - 18 Light System' which including shipping set me back just shy of $100. The manufacturing quality of their product is first rate, but sadly they don't seem to be around any more. At least when I did a web search in January 08, I couldn't find them any more. The installation is very simple and the finished product looks very professional. I was tempted by their lunar tracker for a while, but I don't think freshwater fish can benefit from it, so unless you are having a reef tank it's just a gimmick and an expensive one as such.

The two timers control the regular lighting (left) and the moonlighting (right). Connected to the right-hand side timer is a power supply and a dimmer for the moonlight.

In practical use, I find the whole moonlighting concept to be somewhat overrated. I always run my moonlights at full power, but they are still so dim that I need to switch off any light source in the room, including the TV, in order to be able to see anything inside the tank. Even with just the TV on, the moonlit tank is so dark in comparison to the screen that it simply looks pitch black. While I love to sit at night and watch TV at the same time as my tank, I rarely - never? - sit in front of the tank with just the moonlight on. Maybe if my fish were larger, for example once the Fronts are adult size, I will be able to see them in the moonlight with the TV on (later addition: no, I could not!), but at the moment it's pretty much unused, although I do run the moonlight each night automatically via a timer.

Now, I've got to admit that the few times I have taken the time to get up at night and look at the tank with just the moonlights on, the view was quite impressive. I have about two dozen Synodontis petricola in the tank, some of which are by now approaching 4". I never see this fish during the daytime, not even during feeding. They always hang out in the rock work of the background and since I am feeding rather heavily to grow the fronts out, they probably get enough to eat during the night. At night in the moonlight there are catfish cruising all over the tank, which is an awesome sight.