SolaTubes for reef tanks

[H20ENG]

Do you have details of your RCSD on another thread? If not, we want 'em!!
Volume, airflow, slot opening, etc.
It seems I read about yours once, but lost it. I came up with a baffle box to muffle the noise and water spray from the RCSD exhaust. Let me know if you want more details.
Chris

[SAT]

There's a few RCSD details here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=144989

I experimented with mufflers too. I ended up just spewing the exhaust across the surface of the tank. That works because the tank cover contains the spray and the aquarium closet is sound insulated.

[Jimbo327]

Nice shot of the full tank. It's pretty darn bright! I can imagine the energy savings with the solar tubes. Very cool. What are your stocking plans for this baby? SPS, I hope.

Jimmy

Keep us updated with the progress.

[SAT]

Originally posted by Jimbo327
What are your stocking plans for this baby? SPS, I hope.

It's a Caribbean/Florida biotype reef. I'd love to have a thicket of Acropora cervicornis or A. prolifera and some Agaricia, but that's not in the cards. For the time being I'll have to be happy with the Oculina robusta, what came in on the live rock, gorgonians, and polyps. Then again, maybe I'll break down and stick in a few Indo-Pacific look-alikes.

For fish, I'm thinking a group of yellowhead jawfish (the frame hides the 6" sand bed), a harem of royal grammas, and something that schools. I'm having trouble with that last part... not a lot of great choices.

[baja_01]

and something that schools. I'm having trouble with that last part... not a lot of great choices.

Chalk basses!!! Cool little fish that are supposed to school. I know Reeftopia.com has them.

[andrejka]

Thank you, Stuart!

I just came back from trip to Florida. Went snorkeling on Key Largo too! With images of real reef still fresh in memory, I do think that your tank looks VERY natural!!! The colors are absolutely pleasing to my eye (I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of overly blue tanks though).
Interesting rockwork too! I really like it.
As to the choice of schooling fish, it's too bad that Longspine Cardinalfish come from Indian Ocean....
I take it you wouldn't want a school of Sergeant Majors in your tank either

Please, keep us updated.

[SAT]

Thanks Andrey! That's the effect I was going for.

The longspine cardinal is interesting... but not really an option for this tank. I considered flame cardinals, but I think I would never see them.

Sergeant Majors would be cool... I used to catch 1/2" specimens in tide pools and they were really cute. If only I could keep them from growing past 1/2".

baja_01, I think chalk bass are cool too. However, I believe they mill around in loose aggregates rather than schooling. I'm going for the zebra danio / neon tetra look -- without much success.

I'm surprised no one sells silversides. I saw some really interesting ones at the Bermuda Aquarium.

[lead]

Hey Stuart,

That is pretty coool! I just found your thread tonight and read the whole thing. I was wondering about the UV shielding on the dome. Did you take the UV filter off the dome or is it still on the dome?
Lead

[SAT]

Originally posted by lead
I was wondering about the UV shielding on the dome. Did you take the UV filter off the dome or is it still on the dome?

Hi Lead! Glad you enjoyed it.

I didn't do anything special for UV. I replaced the diffuser with a clear acrylic sheet, but I doubt that affected the UV. I don't know how much UV gets through the acrylic dome and is reflected by the walls, but I suspect it's a fair amount -- particularly since my corals are showing some color change. In any case, I doubt sunlight is as hazardous as many MH lamps.

BTW, I am definitely getting some heating from the sunlight, so infrared is coming through. I don't think it's as much as equivalent artificial lamps but I can tell the difference.

[SAT]

Lead,

And by the way,


To Reef Central

[lead]

Hey thanks stuart,

Please keep me posted on how well your tank is doing. I am very interested in cutting my electric bill and have a more natural looking tank. How much did the 21" tubes cost you? My wife and I are currently making blueprints for our next home. My wife and I made a deal that she can plan out the house as long as I can have my new aquarium and greenhouse as part of the home. We are about a year out before we start actually building. I think that I am in big trouble with her designing the home. My wife has very expensive taste. You probably know how that is. I am planning on building a new tank for the house. I am want the tank to be 10 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 3 feet tall. I think you have solved my lighting problem. Now all I need to do is figure out how big to make the sump, refugium, and how much current to have. Do you have any suggestions for the size of sump, refugium, and the amount of current? I plan on having a lot of acropora, montipora, and few soft corals. Please keep me posted on the details of of your tank. I would like to know how much light, heat generated by the tubes, and any other specific that you care to share. Also I would like to know if you have any trouble with algea or red slime during the summer months. I would like to see some more pictures of your tank. I would like to see how the sunlight affects the color of the corals. I would sure appreciate your help.
Ed

[SAT]

Ed,

Good luck with the house design. One piece of advice: assume it will actually cost a lot more than the initial estimates.

I don't know how much the 21" tubes cost... they were buried in a lot of other stuff. I'm guessing the tubes cost a few $hundred each plus installation... which was probably more. However, I believe it comes out cheaper than a traditional skylight. Given what you're doing, the skylight costs probably don't matter much.

Note I have 3 21" tubes over a 7' x 2' area. Your tank would need at least 8 to get the same illumination. Whether that's bright enough for Acropora I couldn't say... you should probably supplement with VHO or MH. With that many tubes, you might do better with a huge skylight lined with mylar. Talk it over with your contractor or architect.

As for sump & refugium... make them as big as you can fit! Some refugiums are bigger than the main tanks. Just make sure you have a decent size closet to house all the aquarium stuff. Also be careful about placement... my aquarium closet is close enough to the kitchen for my wife to covet the space.

Rule of thumb for circulation is 10X the tank volume minimum. Not all of that has to pass through the sump or refugium. My tank has a surge device built in... if you can manage a surge device I highly recommend it.

I don't know how to measure the heat gain. An HVAC contractor might be able to help. If you size the cooling for MH you'll probably have more than you need. I suggest putting in a thermostatically controlled exhaust fan -- it's probably cheaper than a chiller most of the time.

I'll post some more pictures later, after it's better established. I don't think the skylight concept will be proven until it has run for at least a year.

[lead]

Stuart,

What do you think of this idea? I was going to place four 21 tubes over the top of the reef and a couple of 14 or 18 inch tubes across the lagoon area. I want the reef to come only 2 to 3 feet out from the back wall. This would leave a 1 to 2 foot beach or lagoon for the fish to swim around in. I was thinking that some time down the road. I would add a blue dotted sting ray or a marble shark. What type of corals have you placed in your tank? Do you plan on adding any acropora or montipora to your tank? What type of surge device are you using? Do you have any drawing or a place that I buy this device or a list of parts? I sorry for all the questions. I have only been doing this for a year. I am just totally consumed by this hobby. I love designing my tank and seeing what happens. I just finished my Mechanical Engineering Degree and this allows me to use some of those concepts that I learn in school.
Talk to you later,
Ed

[SAT]

Ed,

I think strongly lighting only the areas where corals are present makes sense. However, I suspect your setup would be considered dim for shallow-water Acropora species. Roughly speaking (and without doing any scientific measurements) I equate a 21" tube to a 250W MH lamp during the summer... and 1/2 of that during the winter. Assuming a 10'x3' effective surface area, many people would use about 3000W of MH lighting to achieve "strong MH" intensities.

Acropora and Montipora aren't available for my tank since it's a Caribbean biotype. For the time being I'm limiting myself to available West Florida hard corals (the most interesting I've found is Oculina robusta, which vaguely resembles a staghorn Acropora) and Florida/Caribbean softies. With a little luck I'll find the lighting I have to be adequate... but I may need more supplementation during the winter.

The surge is a 10G Reverse Carlson. You can find a few references by searching for RCSD. The original article was in the Winter 2000 issue of SeaScope.

[Gusto]

Stuart,
Do you have any updated phots of you set up? You should set up a web page on your tank.

Thanks,

[scot]

I also have a question, do the tubes raise the tank temp?

[tlc]

how big do blue dotted rays get? i would think a large animal would surely destroy your aquascaping.

[SAT]

Gusto, there's not much new to show. I don't even have fish in the tank yet (still waiting for the nitrites to disappear. after 14 weeks it's getting old ). At some point I'll post in the RC photo gallery.

scot, yes I do get some tank heating. I don't know how to quantify it, but I don't think it's bad compared to MH.

[lead]

Hey Stuart,

How are things going? It has been awhile since I last posted. I have been do some more research into sunlight as a supplemental source of light. I have few questions that you might be able to answer for me . Are you using any glass filter to block out the infrared or UV? If so what type of filter and the company that makes the filter so I can add that to my list of things to get for the new home? I was also wondering if you have had more than expect problems with algea than you would get with a new tank? That question might have to waite for a while to be answered completely because of how new your tank is. I was concerned about the amount of red light getting into your tank. All the reading that I have done on the subject says that the amount of red light that enters the tank cause algea to grow more quickly, but I would be interested in finding out if this is true and if you are having more problems with algea than normal.

I have another concern with UV. As corals are placed in higher UV concentrations, they develope too much s320 sun screen and they appear more cream colored on the areas exposed to the sunlight. I was wondering what your thoughts are and how you are going to deal with too much UV. I am still planning on adding the solar tubes to the new home. Is there anything that you would have done different with your current system?
Talk to you later,
Ed

[SAT]

Ed,

It's going pretty well except I'm getting tired of waiting for the nitrites to disappear (~0.3ppm) so I can feel good about adding more organisms. I'm pretty happy with the light. The main thing I would have done differently is close up the bottom of the tubes immediately after installation. That would have avoiding the tubes being coated with construction dust.

I don't have any UV filters. The light travels through the acrylic dome, reflects down the tubes, through a 2nd acrylic sheet covering the tube bottom, then through a 1/4" ordinary glass tank cover.

I havn't noticed any cream color on the corals. The Oculina and Cladocora have darkened from medium to dark brown and developed a slight metallic green sheen in the center of each polyp. The Briareum is starting to spread but shows no color change. The Pterogorgia polyps changed from white to tan very quickly; otherwise, it looks the same as when I got it six weeks ago (which is very nice).

I have a variety of algae in the tank but nothing out of control. Early on I had a diatom bloom, but that only lasted a week or two even after I started dosing silicate. I had a cyano bloom for about a month. Both diatoms and cyano are still present in small amounts. Hair algae started growing about a month ago but isn't choking anything. I have Bryopsys, Caulerpa, Halimeda, Valonia, red hair algae, and fleshy red algae, all growing slowly. Coralline spread rapidly over the original live rock and is slowly showing up elsewhere.

Note the inorganic phosphate levels are unmeasurably low using a Hach kit (<< 0.05 ppm). I also have a decent selection of herbivores, including astrea, ceriths, fighting conchs, stomatella, limpets, nerites, urchins, and a red Mithrax crab that likes hair algae.

I don't buy the theory that full spectrum light causes algae blooms. If you keep the nutrients down and have a good collection of herbivores, you should be OK regardless of spectrum.

[edfish]

On the UV question, my understanding (from reptile land where many diurnal herps need UV for Vitamin D/Calcium purposes) is that generally glass block UV rays. (you don't tan sitting in light from the window at home)

Hope that helps. I am fascinated by the solotubes idea. Ed

[salt lick]

SAT,
I believe the Acrylic dome on top blocks UV. This is a "feature" so the carpet and drapes dont fade.

I have two 13" SunPipes on my installation

see pics

[salt lick]

internal pic

[SAT]

salt lick,

A few suggestions. First, the standard diffusers absorb about 1/2 the light. I suggest replacement with a clear acrylic sheet. Second, most of the light will hit the walls of your above-tank compartment rather than going straight down. I suggest either highly reflective paint or lining it with reflective mylar. Finally, it's likely the pair of 13" tubes won't be enough, particularly in winter, so plan on some flavor of supplement.

Good luck!

[cali_reef]

I don't think he will need much supplement lighting, even in the winter month. He lives Tehachapi; he should have more than enough light if he has the dome facing the right direction.