Solar lighting for your tank

[michika]

Just wanted to share this from Reef Central.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1457056

[fishoholic]

That is so cool, I'd love to do something like that. However in winter I can't see myself going up on the roof to brush the snow off of them. Not really sure if it's sunny enough here (over all) for it to work as well or not.

[hillbillyreefer]

My parents have those in their house. I've been wondering about a system like that ever since. They haven't ever had to sweep them off. The night light effect with the tubes would be awesome.

[Brighteyes_13]

i guess natural light is really the only way to replicate what the reefs get, i am wondering how effective they would be up here in canada tho... less direct lighting hours, less intensity as compared to some place closer to the equator.

would be very nice tho

[Delphinus]

My thoughts as well. It's neat but the sunlight he gets where he is and the sunlight we get up here are not too equivalent. Nevertheless it is neat and an interesting alternative to using a greenhouse for your tank if you wanted to use sunlight at least as a supplement.

[Reefer Rob]

I like it! Maybe we could use more tubes in this area. Or how about a light sensor that turns on some T5s if the light is too low.

[JDigital]

My parents got a couple of those installed in their new house they are building, just for normal lighting. I gotta say, they are very bright (in a good way), much better than fluorescent lighting. Can't get much closer to "real light" for an aquarium... Following lunar cycles would be a no brainer.. haha. Curious to know if you still get the shimmering effect like MH?

[Keri]

Wow - those are REALLY cool, and more reasonably priced than I would have expected....makes me wish it didn't rain so much here!

[Marlin65]

Very cool I use sunlight as much as I can. (tank is close too two windows)
Coral farmers use greenhouses to farm corals with natural light.
I think our climate would work with supplemented lighting on cloudy days as cooling costs more than heating.

[FitoPharmer]

iv looked into farming corals in Canada, it would defiantly be a full time job just to adjust your shade cloths in the summer. where i live or a few other places in BC get lots of sun, more then enough to farm corals in greenhouses or to get a really good effect off a sola-tube 75% of the year. surprising a cloudy day is perfect, so even farming corals near the coast is feasible (cheaper to heat your greenhouse in winter). on a cloudy day, no shade cloths are needed, or just a very light mesh. on a sunny day sometime you have to block out half the light. just remember, if its not as dark as night there's light, and some corals grow 10 or more meters under water. when you grow them in a green house in a foot or less it changes how much natural light is needed for different kinds of corals. Anthony Calfo's first coral farm was set up in a greenhouse around Pittsburgh somewhere which gets more snow and less overall hours of sunlight per year then what we do here in kamloops. i wanted a sola-tube reef, but couldn't convince my mom to let me install one :mrgreen: . they do shimmer if you don't use the light diffuser, however that could easily burn your corals on summer days.

[spreerider]

you can have light sensor controlled shade cloth, alot of orchid greenhouses use them.

[FitoPharmer]

not cheap tho.

[spreerider]

what part of a greenhouse is :P compared to heating or cooling a greenhouse they are cheaper, and not really that difficult to setup or to build one, just calibrating when the shade changes can be ticky

[Marlin65]

What is not cheap any links. Would love some more info.
Thanks

[spreerider]

I just read the entire post, especially about putting them under the surface, the company i work for makes underwater lights to light up fish farms and extend day length, the reason we use underwater lights and not surface mounted lights is that the surface of water reflects about 40% of the light unless its directly shining downward but that wouldent light a large area well so we put them under about 10ft and one light lights up a 25X25 area like daylight and those are only 400w with 1000w or 1500w we get about 50X50. so underwater you would get alot more light from a source but you would also get all the heat.

i would have posted on reef central but dont have an account.

[bauder1986]

very interesting indeed. And you can definitly see the difference in coloration that the corals change when under mh vs solar. I can see this option with a light sensor to activate supplementry lighting as something to be used on a larger more permanent tank setup. Ill be honest though, I have one of my tanks right by the window and early in the morning when the sun hits my frags in it, the open right up and bend towards the sunlight instead of the 150 watt MH sitting 6" above them.

So to say the least, natural sunlight is way better and probably far more intense then most manufactured light systems.

[StirCrazy]

this pops up every 3 to 5 years or so, doesn't work very good, most either reinstall MH for the winter or shut down there tank cuz they fry there corals in the spring. If you read the whole thread they talk about a few people who took them out as the intensity increase in the spring burnt corals, and the owner of the thread shut down his tank cuz of problems with them.. I am trying to think if anyone has run them long tearm and I can think of anyone. to bad as it would save a couple bucks over a few years.

Steve

[lastlight]

I am trying to think if anyone has run them long tearm and I can think of anyone

Then maybe check this guys thread out. It's a very hot item in the Large Tanks forum and he's been doing this for years. Stunning reef and he has ported the sola tubes from his old tank to a new one! He's in Australia I believe and he certainly isn't frying any coral.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1563053

[StirCrazy]

Then maybe check this guys thread out. It's a very hot item in the Large Tanks forum and he's been doing this for years. Stunning reef and he has ported the sola tubes from his old tank to a new one! He's in Australia I believe and he certainly isn't frying any coral.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1563053

I ment here in north america where we have a much colder winter. the problem comes from the decrease in sun for 7 or 8 months then the rapid increase in intensity for a while. when you get close to the equator there realy is no change in seasons. hence the closer you get to the equator the more coral reefs there are. we could talk about people in hawai having outdoor tanks with only natural lighting.. the fact is we don't live in hawaii or Austrailia but lets see you do an outside tank is calgary and see how it works out for ya:mrgreen:

Steve

Steve

[lastlight]

My bad I thought you meant solar powered in general.

If you could detect this rapid increase and then have some automated way of gradually exposing your reef to it it may work. Have a target par at waters surface equal to all your artificial lighting on at full power. Then detect what the sun provides. If it's greater than your target par have some dimming shields or something slide into the solar tubes and if it's less have your artificial lights ramp up.

It'd require some custom programming and equipment and dimming t5s/mh but that'd be pretty slick.