Let the sun shine in

[jterrell]

Crap, I screwed up somehow...let me try again...


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13212347

 

[d3rryc]

For those of you allowing sunlight to your tanks, do you ever have any problems with heat? I'm down in Austin, TX, and I have to keep the blinds down in the fish room, or the afternoon sun drives the temps up too much.

 

[natereinhold1]

For everyone with solar tubes: how far away from the tanks surface do you mount them, or are they just on the ceiling abouve?

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14680680#post14680680 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by d3rryc
For those of you allowing sunlight to your tanks, do you ever have any problems with heat? I'm down in Austin, TX, and I have to keep the blinds down in the fish room, or the afternoon sun drives the temps up too much.

I've had a 2 degree shift in temp--that's all. All my filtration, sump, refugiums light ballasts are all in the basement under the tank.

I run one of those Home Depot cheapy fans (10 bucks) in the fish room also.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14680788#post14680788 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by natereinhold1
For everyone with solar tubes: how far away from the tanks surface do you mount them, or are they just on the ceiling abouve?

check the thread that Jterrell posted above---he has the distance stated somewhere in that thread

BTW
Jterrell--thanks for the link--very interesting read.

 

[jdhuyvetter]

Mine were around 14 inches and I moved them down. Solar tubes do a great job distributing the light evenly. I was losing to much over the edge of the tank and moved them to about 7 inches. Probably a little too close, but works for me. No heat issues. I was running 2100 watts of light on the tank before. Now I run 650 watts of PC actinic and 10K supplements for evening viewing and color. (3:1 ratio). My power bill dropped $152 the first full month.

The thread I started is below:

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

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14684351#post14684351 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdhuyvetter
Mine were around 14 inches and I moved them down. Solar tubes do a great job distributing the light evenly. I was losing to much over the edge of the tank and moved them to about 7 inches. Probably a little too close, but works for me. No heat issues. I was running 2100 watts of light on the tank before. Now I run 650 watts of PC actinic and 10K supplements for evening viewing and color. (3:1 ratio). My power bill dropped $152 the first full month.

The thread I started is below:

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

thanks for the link--another good read. I wonder if anyone on here has done this in Canada where the winter sun is a lot weaker.