1 Year Anniversary- Our 400 Gallon Natural Sun-Lit Reef

jdpiii3

Member
Hey guys a year ago I started my build the growth over the last year has been remarkable.

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this is really cool, congratulations. is this the build where you used the round skylights with reflective tubing?


with reading through lighting threads and articles. also people saying dont let sunlight hit your tank, how does this compare? i was imagining alage problems all the time.
 
That's awesome. Have you ever gotten any par readings? I'd be interested to see those numbers.

Thank you! I haven't had a par reading done yet, our reef club has a meter I just have to request it.
The two 21" domes give off the equivalent of over 3000watts of light and with no added heat to the system avg temps are 76.8-77.4 all year.
 
this is really cool, congratulations. is this the build where you used the round skylights with reflective tubing?


with reading through lighting threads and articles. also people saying dont let sunlight hit your tank, how does this compare? i was imagining alage problems all the time.

Thank you! Yes I use two long 21" tubes.

I have direct sunlight on the tank all day, I don't have any nuisance algae growing. As long as the tanks NO3 & PO4 stay in check your not going to have algae problem.
 
Do you have moon lights hooked up for nighttime viewing? If not do those domes reflect moonlight into the tank aswell?
 
Do you have moon lights hooked up for nighttime viewing? If not do those domes reflect moonlight into the tank aswell?

Yes I get natural moonlight in the tank.

I will be adding some supplemental led lighting for night time viewing for when we have friends over, since I work nights night time viewing isn't that important.
 
Thank you! Here is a video I shot in July.

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If you get around to borrowing the PAR meter please post the values you get at different locations in the tank. It would be very interesting to see how these values compare to MH setups. Thanks for sharing.
 
Looks great! You must get a big savings on the electricity bill!

Yes the power savings is huge, my old 150 had three 250 MH & four 6 foot VHO's and a chiller, new tank just has a couple pumps, house central air also runs a lot less. On avg I'm using about 40% less electric a month now
 
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