Our 400 Gallon In Wall Natural Sun-Lit Reef"
- Thread starter jdpiii3
- Start date
jdpiii3
Member
Thank you!
ReeferNtraining
New member
I have read this whole thread and have been waiting patiently to hear from you again. I am so glad to see you continuing this beautiful creation. It is inspirational in my build after being out of the game for 8 years. My prayers are with you!! Keep it up!
jdpiii3
Member
There are still days I wonder why I'm still shoulder deep and standing on a six foot ladder, guess I must really love it. I agree I don't like the look of the blue lighting either
Thank you so much, glad to see you back at it!
Mrs. Music
New member
Joe, I love the update. thank you for posting pictues! so many beautiful fish. are the b&w damsels terrors? What is the dark green coral? it is lovely.
iced98lx
New member
I agree with Dave, and your tank is part of the reason my tank has really shifted in spectrum to more of a natural color with less blue, it really feels like a nice pool of water the ocean left behind.
Jgoal55
Active member
Awesome update. I love the natural look as well. Though I am not going to lie - I've always thought the best of both worlds would be great. Natural light most of the day and then perhaps a couple of hours of crazy blues just to see those crazy neons. lol
Joe, I'm about to have my tank tilt as well and am currently building a house and I am really considering the tubes. I would love to swing by and see these in person one day if that's an option.
Joe, I'm about to have my tank tilt as well and am currently building a house and I am really considering the tubes. I would love to swing by and see these in person one day if that's an option.
Malign Reefer
New member
Love the natural light, reminds of when I do diving on a shallow reef. Awesome work!!
jdpiii3
Member
Hi Mrs. Music, They can be sometimes they like going after my hand when I'm moving stuff around. Those are green mushrooms, how many do you want
Thank you, one big advantage to living in sunny Florida.
The natural look is where it's at, I feel as though I'm snorkeling in my living room.
I'll think about it, I'm still getting back to life here and I can go into hiding at times. Oh sun-dome is down by you so you can go pick them up and save the shipping.
Thank you! That's why we did it, always feels like were snorkeling on the reef.
vikinglord13
New member
I like how your tank isn't browned out like other naturally-lit reefs I've seen.
rollopac187
New member
Wow, what an awesome project. Someday
skanderson
New member
one more vote of support for the great color in that tank. I get tired of looking at all the painfully blue pics when I'm trying to look at tanks.
gonzalezvacaeli
New member
Any algae problems with solar tubes
Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
jdpiii3
Member
When I first set up the system I had a very diligent maintenance schedule of daily 1-2% water changes, regular 25 micron filter sock changing, carbon dosing and a protein skimmer that was always working at peak performance. With a good handle on nutrient export I had little to no algae.
Fast forward a few years, after the passing of my wife I really had a hard time with day to day care of the system it was enough to just get out of bed let alone care for the tank. I did develop algae, I don't blame that on the natural sunlight, it was my fault.
Now that I'm finally getting back on track the algae has stopped its development and the corals are starting to grow well again.
Every tank whether you are using LED, metal halide, T5 bulbs or like me natural sunlight will develop algae if you cannot control nutrient export. Yes the wider light spectrum of natural sunlight can cause the algae to grow a bit easier, but with proper care it can be controlled. PO4 - .02 NO3 "“ currently undetectable.
Hope that helps.
Jgoal55
Active member
Understood and thanks for even considering it. Also, thanks for the info on Sun-dome. I am so very tempted to give this a shot. I really have the perfect opportunity to do it.
On another note, have you ever heard of a way to automatically control how many hours of sun the tubes let in? In other words, if I wanted to do x number of sunlight hours per day, and then do artificial lighting rest of the day, would that work, is there an automated way to close the tubes?
