SolaTubes for reef tanks - Page 2

conorwynne · 12/27/2007, 10:27 AM

I suppose you guys get little or no cloud cover then?

Cannot wait till its all up and running... holidays, get to work... :-)

Looks fab.
Conor.

rogergolf66 · 12/27/2007, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by conorwynne
I suppose you guys get little or no cloud cover then?

Cannot wait till its all up and running... holidays, get to work... :-)

Looks fab.
Conor.

A lot less cloud cover then you get in Irland. I love your country the grass is so green. I went to golf there in 1998 it was great.

Earl87gta · 12/27/2007, 02:38 PM

the house is gutted out above the tank so I have plenty of room to get it down to it Im adding a bath room up stairs and I can make the new plubing wall big enough to get the 10in tubes in to the basement.

JCTewks · 12/27/2007, 03:14 PM

I think it would look great, but probably wouldn't suffice for primary lighting. Maybe the solatubes and some T5's would do the trick. The moonlight at night would definitely be something to see

JMBoehling · 12/27/2007, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Earl87gta
the house is gutted out above the tank so I have plenty of room to get it down to it Im adding a bath room up stairs and I can make the new plubing wall big enough to get the 10in tubes in to the basement.

I've got (02) 10" tubes on my reef. I have to supplement with (04) T5's.. Probably get away with (02) T5's but I could never get the color I liked with just (02) bulbs and the Natural Sunlight.

My tubes run approximately 14 ft from the roof to the water surface of my reef. I personally think the 10" tubes are too small. I would size up to 16" if you can make them work.. Also, you will loose some intensity from the light refracting off the tubes, so even bigger I.D. tubes would be better for your reef.

One thing I did on my install was to NOT install the domes on the roof, instead I used some flat sheet Plexiglass. The intensity of light was much better with the flat surface than the dome. I picked this idea up from a reefer in Australia that did this before me.

I personally like the natural light, and my SPS do as well. Good luck with your project. Can't wait to see some pics.

Later,

Jim

salty joe · 12/27/2007, 06:00 PM

[QUOTE][i here is what i am working on.

Hey Carl, you have your roof on and that big skylight flashed by now, don't you?

How is the project coming along?

I'm interested because what I planned is very similar to what you are doing.

Joe

Reefski's · 12/27/2007, 07:05 PM

you can follow the progress here.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...6#post11467136

not roofed yet. watertight but no shingles. the roofers house is only able to be worked on when other jobs permit.

water going in the tank tomorrow for hydrotest of plumbing of closed loop.

Carl

BrokenReefer · 12/28/2007, 07:05 AM

OT - Nice shingles!! We don't see much Certainteed Presidential's up here in IL, I gotta see a pic when the roof is done. Possibly one in it's current state?? Lol!! Roofers pr0n is a well done roof, sad to say isn't it?

Anyhow, this is an interesting concept your working on with the anolux skylight shaft. Any concern for light overrun or possible reflection issues with the seating or other housing arrangements?

Reefski's · 12/28/2007, 09:20 AM

i love the Presidential shingles. i will post some pictures when it is done.

the part that is open around the tank may get doors so i can have the reflective material all the way to the tank so no light spills out. i am not worried about the furniture. there won't be anything near the tank.

Carl

JMBoehling · 03/01/2008, 12:43 PM

Couple updated shots:

Couple Top Down

Later,

Jim

conorwynne · 03/02/2008, 06:26 AM

Hi,

How many watts do you run for lighting then?
What was the cloud cover like when you took those shots?

I see its cold in your area currently..:
http://www.accuweather.com/forecast....&zipcode=23219

Conor.

JMBoehling · 03/02/2008, 06:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by conorwynne
Hi,

How many watts do you run for lighting then?
What was the cloud cover like when you took those shots?

I see its cold in your area currently..:
http://www.accuweather.com/forecast....&zipcode=23219

Conor.

216 watts of T5 (4 - 54 watt T5HO's)
200 watts of Halogen bulbs

That's 416 watts total plus the PAR from the skylights. I run the Halogen (not Halide) bulbs in the evening or raining days when I want to appearance of the natural sun shimmer in my reef.

Thanks,

Jim

conorwynne · 03/02/2008, 06:55 AM

Cool, not that much then.

I had the lads from solatube in to see about fitting for my new reef. Alas, due to the design and placement of the house, my only option would to place the tank in the attic convertion.

Which is now my daughters room. I had a discus tank there for a few years, and it was a royal pain doing WC's.

If I do decide to go down this road, I would likely avoid supplemental lighting altogether, maybe just adding one actinic?

No funds as of yet as wife wants a new car. looking at a prius -- they are ugly though.

Later
Conor

mborn · 03/03/2008, 10:45 AM

Tank's looking great!

JMBoehling · 03/03/2008, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mborn
Tank's looking great!

Thanks! Took me a few years to realize that water chemistry and water flow are equally as important as light spectrum in the aquarium.

This should be a fun summer with some really good growth. I hope other Skylight users will contiunue to post their pics to this thread.

Later,

Jim

JMBoehling · 05/31/2008, 09:31 AM

Update:

Things continue to grow under the tubes. Sun is back to a good angle and really lighting up my reef again

Later,

Jim

conorwynne · 05/31/2008, 12:56 PM

Fabulous. More pics please.

What fish do you have? I cannot see any.

JMBoehling · 05/31/2008, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by conorwynne
Fabulous. More pics please.

What fish do you have? I cannot see any.

Thanks

Fish:

Purple Tang
Yellow Tang
Lopezi Tang
Marine Beta
Mandarin Goby
Pair Perculas Clowns (Lay eggs every 20 days or so.. Female is 18 years old)
Algae Blenny
(03) Green Chromis

Thats about it...

Jim

JMBoehling · 05/31/2008, 01:19 PM

You can find more pics here

http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...al&media=image

Thanks,

Jim

hahnmeister · 06/02/2008, 07:46 PM

Two things you might want to consider, as I know I am for my future 'sunroom' build...

You will get loads of light, even in more northern latitudes, because even thought the sun is a little weaker, the water depth is also alot less for our tanks compared to nature. A 14-16" diameter sola-tube can easily match the output of a 400 watt halide in that case at noon... even here in WI. Now, when in doubt, always go larger, for sure.... you can always restrict the light that comes in, but you cant add more later as easily.

As for color, keep in mind that a very good reason to 'overshoot' your skylighting needs is that then you have some play as far as adding in color filters to filter & 'tint' parts of the light. It can be as simple as placing a piece of blue tinted acrylic or film in the skylight to filter some of the light coming through to bring back the blues. A checkerboard pattern of blue film in the skylight or above the tank somewhere should be all you need, and any light lost from all that 'filtering' of the light would be made up for by the fact that you have so much more of it to go around.

Of course, for 'after hours', some backup lights are an idea. I plan on a 4'x4' (or two skylights that add up to 65"x65"... havent decided yet) light shaft over a 6'x6' tank, with about 24x 80watt T5s as backup/supplimental lighting... 1/3 running blues and 1/3 running actinics so I can suppliment the daylight in weaker months, and 1/3 running aquablues/6500Ks so I can have a full spectrum at night. Chances are, I wont even need these many anyways... I know of 480g tanks (I plan on 540g) which are running on only 20x80 watt T5s, with SPS top to bottom.

Reefski's · 06/02/2008, 09:18 PM

Jim:

have you ever measured your light with a PAR or Lux meter?

Hanmeister- if you have 24x80 watt tubes over your tank won't that block much of your sunlight from reaching the tank?

on my tank i don't need any supplement light, at least for most of the year. i don't know about winter yet. i plan to have some supplemental halides on a light rail that can be moved in or out of the closet by the tank. mostly in but available when needed or wanted.

i think a solar tube gives a point source type of light much like a halide. i like the way the sun bounces down the sahft in my tank lighting from more angles that halides or a tube.

Carl

hahnmeister · 06/02/2008, 10:07 PM

Those are some wicked high light levels. 200 is more like it for a tank that size (center, bottom)... of course, that 1500+ you get is for how long? If thats just the daily peak for a half hour or something, it isnt so bad. Still, be careful with the corals... they may not be able to take it at that intensity until acclimated, even if only for a little bit, until they build up their pigments.

Reefski's · 06/02/2008, 10:23 PM

it has these high levels for 2-3 hours over the day as the sun moves around it will be on brighter at various times over the day. i have not had any bleaching but rather some browning if anything which is interesting. no blue lighting to make the colors more intense. so it may just be my perception of the colors being browner than the reality of it.

i have some eggcrate over part of the tank where i will soon be putting some lower light LPS corals.

i am still in the cycling phase with hair algae and only a few corals, which are growing. not enough herbivores. just 3 urchins and a lawmower blenny. if i could catch a couple of the tangs in the other tank i would put them in.

nitrates <2ppm and phosphates are not measureable with Hanna
C200 colorimeter.

i believe sunlight can provide all you need for coral growth and health.

Carl

hahnmeister · 06/02/2008, 10:37 PM

2-3 hours per day... wow. I suppose, you are in Cali after all. In Hawaii, the levels peaks at about 2200 at noon at the surface, so you arent going to be that much lower than that... most likely in the 1800s at noon. You really might have too much light though... could explain the browning.

Maybe in your case, all the aluminum on the walls could have been just walls that were painted blue...lol. But really, that is still alot of light. At 15m of depth on Hawaii (most corals get collected in the 5-25m range, few above 10m for that matter... most from the 15m range). At 15 meters of depth, the noon peak is really only about 1100... and Hawaii has some of the clearest waters in the world (in case you were thinking that Hawaii might not get as much light as say... the north end of the Barrier reef or the other Pac Islands). So you could be overdoing it.... esp considering those are your light levels at the SAND!

Reefski's · 06/02/2008, 10:48 PM

i was just rereading the section in Eric Borneman's Aquarium Corals again about light and you are right about the attenuation at depth. i think he said 50% of surface values at 15 meters.

it is almost the peak of summer here.

why would they get browner from more light?

some redundency of photos but here is what Eric thought about the light levels.

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic85132-9-1.aspx

Carl

12/27/2007, 10:27 AM	#26
conorwynne Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 433	I suppose you guys get little or no cloud cover then? Cannot wait till its all up and running... holidays, get to work... :-) Looks fab. Conor. __________________ New tank (468L or 120G) has salt and rock, just add coral and fish! Current Tank Info: New tank in progress....

12/27/2007, 02:38 PM	#28
Earl87gta Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: North Fla Posts: 303	the house is gutted out above the tank so I have plenty of room to get it down to it Im adding a bath room up stairs and I can make the new plubing wall big enough to get the 10in tubes in to the basement. __________________ Earl 250gl In wall tank set up on Dec 27 2003 with a 20 gal sump for heaters and skimmer and a 30gal summp used for a ref

03/01/2008, 12:43 PM	#35
JMBoehling Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Richmond, VA Posts: 2,353	Couple updated shots: Couple Top Down Later, Jim __________________ Richmond Reef Club Current Tank Info: 90 Gallon AGA, Bare Bottom, (02) 10" Skylights, 216 Watts T5HO, (04) 4 watt cree LED's, Deltec AP600 Skimmer

03/02/2008, 06:26 AM	#36
conorwynne Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 433	Hi, How many watts do you run for lighting then? What was the cloud cover like when you took those shots? I see its cold in your area currently..: http://www.accuweather.com/forecast....&zipcode=23219 Conor. __________________ New tank (468L or 120G) has salt and rock, just add coral and fish! Current Tank Info: New tank in progress....

03/02/2008, 06:55 AM	#38
conorwynne Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 433	Cool, not that much then. I had the lads from solatube in to see about fitting for my new reef. Alas, due to the design and placement of the house, my only option would to place the tank in the attic convertion. Which is now my daughters room. I had a discus tank there for a few years, and it was a royal pain doing WC's. If I do decide to go down this road, I would likely avoid supplemental lighting altogether, maybe just adding one actinic? No funds as of yet as wife wants a new car. looking at a prius -- they are ugly though. Later Conor __________________ New tank (468L or 120G) has salt and rock, just add coral and fish! Current Tank Info: New tank in progress....

12/27/2007, 03:14 PM	#29
JCTewks Moved On Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Wilmington, Ohio Posts: 3,040	I think it would look great, but probably wouldn't suffice for primary lighting. Maybe the solatubes and some T5's would do the trick. The moonlight at night would definitely be something to see

12/27/2007, 06:00 PM	#31
salty joe Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: medina, ohio Posts: 2,419	[QUOTE][i here is what i am working on. Hey Carl, you have your roof on and that big skylight flashed by now, don't you? How is the project coming along? I'm interested because what I planned is very similar to what you are doing. Joe

12/27/2007, 07:05 PM	#32
Reefski's Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Topanga Posts: 3,016	you can follow the progress here. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...6#post11467136 not roofed yet. watertight but no shingles. the roofers house is only able to be worked on when other jobs permit. water going in the tank tomorrow for hydrotest of plumbing of closed loop. Carl

12/28/2007, 07:05 AM	#33
BrokenReefer Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Wheaton Posts: 311	OT - Nice shingles!! We don't see much Certainteed Presidential's up here in IL, I gotta see a pic when the roof is done. Possibly one in it's current state?? Lol!! Roofers pr0n is a well done roof, sad to say isn't it? Anyhow, this is an interesting concept your working on with the anolux skylight shaft. Any concern for light overrun or possible reflection issues with the seating or other housing arrangements?

12/28/2007, 09:20 AM	#34
Reefski's Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Topanga Posts: 3,016	i love the Presidential shingles. i will post some pictures when it is done. the part that is open around the tank may get doors so i can have the reflective material all the way to the tank so no light spills out. i am not worried about the furniture. there won't be anything near the tank. Carl

03/03/2008, 10:45 AM	#39
mborn Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Escondido, CA Posts: 346	Tank's looking great!

05/31/2008, 09:31 AM	#41
JMBoehling Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Richmond, VA Posts: 2,353	Update: Things continue to grow under the tubes. Sun is back to a good angle and really lighting up my reef again Later, Jim __________________ Richmond Reef Club Current Tank Info: 90 Gallon AGA, Bare Bottom, (02) 10" Skylights, 216 Watts T5HO, (04) 4 watt cree LED's, Deltec AP600 Skimmer

05/31/2008, 12:56 PM	#42
conorwynne Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 433	Fabulous. More pics please. What fish do you have? I cannot see any. __________________ New tank (468L or 120G) has salt and rock, just add coral and fish! Current Tank Info: New tank in progress....

05/31/2008, 01:19 PM	#44
JMBoehling Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Richmond, VA Posts: 2,353	You can find more pics here http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...al&media=image Thanks, Jim __________________ Richmond Reef Club Current Tank Info: 90 Gallon AGA, Bare Bottom, (02) 10" Skylights, 216 Watts T5HO, (04) 4 watt cree LED's, Deltec AP600 Skimmer

06/02/2008, 07:46 PM	#45
hahnmeister Moved On Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Brew City, WI Posts: 10,156	Two things you might want to consider, as I know I am for my future 'sunroom' build... You will get loads of light, even in more northern latitudes, because even thought the sun is a little weaker, the water depth is also alot less for our tanks compared to nature. A 14-16" diameter sola-tube can easily match the output of a 400 watt halide in that case at noon... even here in WI. Now, when in doubt, always go larger, for sure.... you can always restrict the light that comes in, but you cant add more later as easily. As for color, keep in mind that a very good reason to 'overshoot' your skylighting needs is that then you have some play as far as adding in color filters to filter & 'tint' parts of the light. It can be as simple as placing a piece of blue tinted acrylic or film in the skylight to filter some of the light coming through to bring back the blues. A checkerboard pattern of blue film in the skylight or above the tank somewhere should be all you need, and any light lost from all that 'filtering' of the light would be made up for by the fact that you have so much more of it to go around. Of course, for 'after hours', some backup lights are an idea. I plan on a 4'x4' (or two skylights that add up to 65"x65"... havent decided yet) light shaft over a 6'x6' tank, with about 24x 80watt T5s as backup/supplimental lighting... 1/3 running blues and 1/3 running actinics so I can suppliment the daylight in weaker months, and 1/3 running aquablues/6500Ks so I can have a full spectrum at night. Chances are, I wont even need these many anyways... I know of 480g tanks (I plan on 540g) which are running on only 20x80 watt T5s, with SPS top to bottom.

06/02/2008, 09:18 PM	#46
Reefski's Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Topanga Posts: 3,016	Jim: have you ever measured your light with a PAR or Lux meter? Hanmeister- if you have 24x80 watt tubes over your tank won't that block much of your sunlight from reaching the tank? on my tank i don't need any supplement light, at least for most of the year. i don't know about winter yet. i plan to have some supplemental halides on a light rail that can be moved in or out of the closet by the tank. mostly in but available when needed or wanted. i think a solar tube gives a point source type of light much like a halide. i like the way the sun bounces down the sahft in my tank lighting from more angles that halides or a tube. Carl

06/02/2008, 10:07 PM	#47
hahnmeister Moved On Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Brew City, WI Posts: 10,156	Those are some wicked high light levels. 200 is more like it for a tank that size (center, bottom)... of course, that 1500+ you get is for how long? If thats just the daily peak for a half hour or something, it isnt so bad. Still, be careful with the corals... they may not be able to take it at that intensity until acclimated, even if only for a little bit, until they build up their pigments.

06/02/2008, 10:23 PM	#48
Reefski's Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Topanga Posts: 3,016	it has these high levels for 2-3 hours over the day as the sun moves around it will be on brighter at various times over the day. i have not had any bleaching but rather some browning if anything which is interesting. no blue lighting to make the colors more intense. so it may just be my perception of the colors being browner than the reality of it. i have some eggcrate over part of the tank where i will soon be putting some lower light LPS corals. i am still in the cycling phase with hair algae and only a few corals, which are growing. not enough herbivores. just 3 urchins and a lawmower blenny. if i could catch a couple of the tangs in the other tank i would put them in. nitrates <2ppm and phosphates are not measureable with Hanna C200 colorimeter. i believe sunlight can provide all you need for coral growth and health. Carl

06/02/2008, 10:37 PM	#49
hahnmeister Moved On Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Brew City, WI Posts: 10,156	2-3 hours per day... wow. I suppose, you are in Cali after all. In Hawaii, the levels peaks at about 2200 at noon at the surface, so you arent going to be that much lower than that... most likely in the 1800s at noon. You really might have too much light though... could explain the browning. Maybe in your case, all the aluminum on the walls could have been just walls that were painted blue...lol. But really, that is still alot of light. At 15m of depth on Hawaii (most corals get collected in the 5-25m range, few above 10m for that matter... most from the 15m range). At 15 meters of depth, the noon peak is really only about 1100... and Hawaii has some of the clearest waters in the world (in case you were thinking that Hawaii might not get as much light as say... the north end of the Barrier reef or the other Pac Islands). So you could be overdoing it.... esp considering those are your light levels at the SAND!

06/02/2008, 10:48 PM	#50
Reefski's Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Topanga Posts: 3,016	i was just rereading the section in Eric Borneman's Aquarium Corals again about light and you are right about the attenuation at depth. i think he said 50% of surface values at 15 meters. it is almost the peak of summer here. why would they get browner from more light? some redundency of photos but here is what Eric thought about the light levels. http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic85132-9-1.aspx Carl