BLUE LED LIGHTING...

I am in the planning stages of building lighting hoods for my 2 tanks, a 75e and a 92 corner, I am getting them both ready at the same time, but will start cycling the 75 first, I have been reading all of the older forums getting lots of great info, and have made my mind up to go with metal halide lighting, 2 X 250w for each tank, it looks like to add actinic bulbs, would 4 X 65w actinic bulbs be sufficient?? i am not too worried about cost, just want it to be the best lighting i can get. My main question is " is the blue led lighting that is to simulate moonlight working?? Is it just for looks? (it does look cool, and if it does nothing else, i will still do it) or does it really help the corals and promote breeding in fish and corals?? Has anybody had any success with them?
What I am thinking for both tanks, is 24 5mm blue leds, each one at least 4000mcd, 465-470nm.
Would it be better to go for a higher mcd rating?? say 6000-7000mcd??? not sure if the 4000mcd is the closest spectrum to moonlight? don't want to overdo it.
Thanks in advance!

 

Not sure about the technical data, but I have a single moonlight LED and it looks way cool. My corals are all happy, but I can't say for sure if the moonlight has any effect.

 

It depends on the frequency of the LED. If it is the right one (I think 440) you will have to double check that, it is supposed to stimulate. The thing is a lot of people are just having any LED put on and that just makes it look cool at night.

 

MCD is the brightness NM is the color or frequency.470nm is what you want.you can find the at www.lsdiodes.com.it is the cheapest you will find them.

 

Thanks to everyone for the replies, I was checking out my friends tank, he has the "moonlight" leds on his tank, it looks awesome, I just was curious if it was strictly for looks, or if it served another purpose. The one he bought comes with a dimmer on it. Which is pretty cool.

 

i picked some 470nm led's at radio shack. and i also picked up a power source. they are doing great!!!!!

 

You paid too much.for 5 dollas you could have gotten like 5 leds including shipping from lsdiodes.com.

 

yah i know i coulda saved a few bucks but i had to have them now. you know how that works. thanks for the info on that source though.