going green solar tube lighting

[dremw2]

so i finally took the plunge and am going solar with my lighting my plan is to have 2x14" solar tubes for all my lighting and supplement with 4 12watt ecoxotic led strips heres some pics of one of the tubes going in and the metal halides going out i still need to go pick up one more tube and two extensions to bring the light down to about 2feet off the water surface.

im even thinking about lining the walls with some reflected material of some sorts any ideas?

 

[sir_dudeguy]

why line the walls? Once you put the extensions on there its going to point most of the light into the tank anyways...

 

[jgrog76]

You will have to uninstall the plastic ring in your picture to install an extension. I put these in my house last year and noticed that the longer the run of tubing the dimmer the fixture is. It is very noticeable between two of my bathrooms where the one is mounted with only a 1 tube run and the other is using both of the original tubes in the kit. I know you already installed them, but the larger size (bigger than 14 but cannot remember the exact number) that uses the flexible mylar like tubing seems to carry the light much better over the longer distances.

 

[dremw2]

yeah thats true i was just thinking when the lights bounces out of the tank it would hit the walls and some light would go back in just a thought i wounder if they make a paint thats reflective anyways got one all done so heres some pics that were taken at 5pm so not to much light anymore but still pretty bright cant wait till tomorrow to really see what it looks like

as you can see from the shadow on the roof the sun is all the way to the west and not above

 

[evsalty]

I am curious about how often you will have to clean the outside bubble?

 

[dremw2]

i have no idea but im sure glad i wont have to be paying aps for the halides going im would'nt mind getting up there every week . so my original idea was to go with led but im rethinking it should i do some t5 or led not really sure which would be better anyone have any input

 

[NaClH20NMYVEIN]

Awesome choice! It appears that you went with Solartube brand tubes, correct? Did you get the dimmers with them? I met with the solar tube brand company 2 weeks ago and I will be intsalling 4 of these in the next few months. I assume the LEDs or T5's are just for color correct? If that is the case your best bet is to go with VHO to offset the color from the tubes. I would love to come by and check them out sometime if you would not mind. Nothing is better than the real thing.

 

[dremw2]

the tubes are ODL brand im not sure if theres any diffrence between diffrent brands the reason i wana do either led or t5 is to offset the color and im not sure if its gona have the right spectrum to grow sps with just the solartubes. if you wana swing by send me a pm im always home we could set something up no problem.

 

[Reeefer]

Looks suhweet Dre. Congrats, I'd love to come check out sometime as well.

 

[Turbovr3six]

pretty cool man! post some pics tomorrow when the sun is out more... looks sweet none the less!:beer:

 

[dremw2]

i think im going to take a pic every hour to see what the diffrence is throughout the day

 

[ScrubberOTanky]

Looks awesome! I have a feeling your corals are going to suffer a bit at first then come back around... The sun is full spectrum and lots of it!

Keep us posted, I was thinking about doing this in my prop system too, but I have a 2 story house, kinda tricky.

 

[tdp22]

Whoa everybody....These things are awesome!! I guess I am behind the times. How much are these bad boys and how big of a pain to install? How many did you put on your tank? Can you post a pic of how it is placed over the tank? That is awesome!!

 

[NaClH20NMYVEIN]

Do yours have dimmers in them? I have heard that burning can be an issue with these in the summer. The ones 'm looking at have a dimmer option so you can control via a light switch if you wat 100% of the light coming in or 5% and everywhere in between. Its an extra $250 per tube but with how much par these put out it seems like it might be necessary in the summer.

 

[dremw2]

only got one so far that i got over a year ago looking to get another one maybe 2 they run about $250bucks plus $45 for the extension pretty easy to install took me about 2-3hrs from start to finish


i think my neighbors were looking at my house tonight saying wats that blue thing on the roof (lol i gota get a pic) i had my mh lights on looks funny from outside all glowing



NaClH20NMYVEIN : no i didnt get the dimmer with it i found this one on CL for $50 over a year ago and have been doing a lota reading on them till taking the plunge.

 

[NaClH20NMYVEIN]

Right on, just keep an eye on your stuff right under the tube as the days start to get longer. One thread I read the guy was getting par level of 3000 right under the tube at noon-1ish.

 

[ScrubberOTanky]

Right on, just keep an eye on your stuff right under the tube as the days start to get longer. One thread I read the guy was getting par level of 3000 right under the tube at noon-1ish.

I think I read that too, lots of browning initially on SPS, but it will come back around... think about how long it takes for a wild colony to look good in your tank when you get it right from suppliers...

 

[Patrick_rogn]

thats really cool

 

[dremw2]

Brown sps noooooo my tricolor. And montis just came back to normal lol oh well it's all good I got all the time n the world I can't wait till everything settles in and gets used to the onatural sunshine lol

 

[Big Jay D]

I took this picture in about 4 feet of water.

The blue SPS seemed to be deeper. 20-40 feet.