gone solar

hobogato, your tank is amazing. I noticed you have a small sand bed, is that correct? Have you noticed any difference with the skimmate after installing the tubes?
 
I finally all but gave up on the sky light idea. I had some great results at first but as the sun shifts you get laser beams of light reflected and when these hit certain specimens they get burned.

The problems really get amplified after decreased intensity during the winter and then spring comes and fairly rapidly the intensity increases and stuff reacts poorly.

I painted the sky light domes white and run 3x 600 watt halides from pacific garden supply. 220v system.

It's a bummer because during the summer when the sun came in at full intensity the glitter and overall effect was just truly spectacular.
 
That's what I did. There are two others (myself included) that have done solar tubes. We have both used diffusers.

My thread is titled "Gone Solar Too"
The other thread is "Another Gone Solar"
 
Link to my thread. I'm in Florida

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1574694

Link to the other thread. Guy is in California

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1561945&highlight=solar+tubes

Two very different approaches. My tank (Gone Solar Too) was already up and running for nearly two years. I completely redid the filtration, flow and lighting over a 4 month period. Definitely a shock to the system. In retrospect, I would have spread it out over a year.

The other tank (Another Gone Solar) was a brand new set up.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15692930#post15692930 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Herpervet
I finally all but gave up on the sky light idea. I had some great results at first but as the sun shifts you get laser beams of light reflected and when these hit certain specimens they get burned.

The problems really get amplified after decreased intensity during the winter and then spring comes and fairly rapidly the intensity increases and stuff reacts poorly.

I painted the sky light domes white and run 3x 600 watt halides from pacific garden supply. 220v system.

It's a bummer because during the summer when the sun came in at full intensity the glitter and overall effect was just truly spectacular.
Click to expand...
Thats a bummer that you didn't have good results with the tubes. Where are you located and do you have pictures or can you post some?? I've had nothing but good results. I put water in my tank in Feb 2009 and started adding corlas in March. All my corals are doing awesome and its mainly an SPS tank with a few LPS. Like the guy on top said my thread is called Another Gone Solar and the link is posted above.
 
I have been picking and choosing threads which will keep me going though my night time readings. I have been though Chingchai and Dave's threads over the last two days and found them equally wonedrful. So today I went though every single page on this thread and read almost all comments (sad I know lol) and enjoyed.


I am glad I picked your thread to read though tonight and I must say I enjoyed it all the way though. What a wonderful idea, we here in the UK wouldn't even dream of having such things installed over our roofs to lite up our reef tanks. We didn't even get a decent two week long period of sunshine so there goes out the idea of having such a wonderful renewable system.

Must say it is very insprational and I wish you all the best and keep us updated with your lovely camerawork...

Lets hope I find more wonderful threads like yours to keep me going for my nightly reading until 21st September as I am on holidays....lol.

Once again welldone for such a wonderful idea..
 
wow, it has been a long time since i have been in here.

yes, as servo said, i left the hobby for a while. after 15 years, i really just needed a break. after being dry for about 6 months, i set up a new tank.

it is a 150 gallon tank, and it is under the center solar tube. i als have 216 watts of t5 lights as suppliments.

just started putting some sps in, after having some luck with a few frags over the last few months. this is mixed reef again, so it wont be sps dominant, but i will post a pic or two of the sps from time to time.

here is a quick pic from the other day
DSC07141.jpg


good to be posting in here again :)
 
A lionfish in a reef tank looks awesome! I guess you just need a good skimmer and no shrimp/small fish. I've always thought about one because I used to have one in a FO. Way cool fish.
Edit: I see a shrimp:eek2:
 
well, i have taken a bit of a different direction with this tank.

no sump
no skimmer

very deep sand bed, with closed loop and wavebox for circulation. mangrove trees growing out the top of the open tank (taking advantage of the light from the outside two solar tubes) and various types of macroalgae on the top of the rock column.

inhabitants include the lion, a zebra moray(the cleaner shrimp remains on him at all times), red coris, niger trigger, yellow tang, couple of blue damsels, pink skunk

have had some growth on some frags, will posts a few pics when i get home this evening.
 
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