lighting idea

[jsshark1]

Hi every one


I had a idea and wanted to know if any one has already tried this.

has any one ever used a tubular skylight to light up their tank.

I was thinking some think like this.

my tank will never move ( I hope ) from where they are ,

my two 92gal corners tanks, one on each side of the fire place.
no book shelves for me.

I was thinking of trying it on my eel tank first. I could have vho and/or a MH for back up, I live in Concord CA it rains 3 months out of the years and the rest sun ,sun, sun

would I get enough light in to the tank. :rollface:

do they give off enough light for my reef, what do you guys think

 

[jest]

Hey jsshark,

I believe there was a thread on here awhile back about someone incorporating these into their lighting as a supplementary source.

http://www.solatube.com/res_edu.php

although, I can't remember what the outcome was.

search RC for "Solatube"

 

[Stinkyfish1]

The owner of my LFS metioned one of his customers doing that and, from what I recall....the guy had problems because of the low spectrum. He was trying to figure out how to put some type of filter on it so he could get more of a 10k-14k spectrum and not a 7000k which gave it a very yellow look.

 

[hawaiianwargod]

Check this link out...amazing!

Check this link out...amazing!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56125

 

[datablitz]

you lose a lot of color when you grow corals in sunlight, since it is such a low spectrum. hard corals usually grow very well, but soft corals some times do not even open in sdirect sunlight, depending on the depth. also a lot of th color gets lost in the sunlight spectrum

 

[jsshark1]

wow some one already did this

wow some one already did this

it sound like it would be ok for the eel tank but not for my reef tank, the main think I have is soft corals. I would not mind trying it if I didn’t have to cut a hole in the roof to see the out come,

I was thinking that the sun light would only be replacing the MH light I have now, I would still leave the VHO blues for color.

do you think that would help the idea

I will have to think about this one. :rollface:

thanks

 

[jsshark1]

thanks for the links

thanks for the links

wow... that was some good reading, sound like a good idea for my tank, new project on the list,

thanks for the links guys

 

[jsshark1]

and we start a new project

and we start a new project

like I don’t have enough projects open at the moment I am throwing this on in,

I will make it first on my 92 eel tank but will have to build it to fit my reef since my reef has my new serge tank on top , (other open project :spin1: )

both of my 92 corner tanks has to end up looking the same .


and we start by out lining what size sun tube I will use

10" or 13" I have showing.
I will be making a light chamber on top. that will be lined with mirrors.

I have not even started the hood for my eel tank , I just have temporary lighting on it at the moment .

can some one tell me what is the difference in

sun tube
tubular skylight


besides the names ?

 

[jsshark1]

is bigger better

is bigger better

I have been checking prices on these tubes .

big difference in $$ for the 10" and the 13" or 14".
do you guys think the 10" will do the job,
if I get a 14" would it be over kill or the better choice, bigger is better for my reef

 

[joshnano]

You could position mirrors or reflectors in the tube in such a way that they transfere the light from the skylight to the tank. This gave me the idea of fibre optics as I am aware that this is what they are used for transporting light down a tube, you could fill a tube with enough fibre optics to carry the light to your tank, just an idea.