Solar tubes?

[mickeyray]

How powerful are they.. even on the sunniest of days

 

[jdhuyvetter]

According to my PAR meter, I get about 85% to 90% of the PAR outside. Please note, this is using the "solatube" brand and no diffuser at the bottom of the tube. The PAR is at the very bottom of the tube, not at the top of the water. The link below is to my solar tube thread (a little outdated, needs new pics)

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1574694

 

[chumm]

This guy named Ace in san antonio did an elaborate build thread...

 

[TeebD]

I've seen Ace's setup and he's not lacking any light using the tubes. It is nothing but sun down here most of the year though.

 

[teesquare]

I researched using them as well. Unfortunately for me - the placement of them,direction and pitch of my roof, and where I live would not be "the" solution I had hoped. But it would still provide 30-40% of the light - so perhaps you could look at the solar lighting as an additional resource.

 

[Just2Many]

There was a guy doing these in Cleveland which I'm not far from but feel as it would still work in my area.

 

[jjsan]

awhile ago, someone posted using solar tubes, which looked really neat and energy efficient. the growth was great. But when winter came around, he had to add MH to the tank because less sun light exposure time.

 

[Just2Many]

I still think they will work here in Cleveland

 

[teesquare]

I still think they will work here in Cleveland

Yeah...uh..the rest of us thouht the same thing about the Browns:lol2::thumbsup:


Seriously, you should look into how many days of sunshine vs clouds per year that you have.

T

 

[Just2Many]

Yeah I'm slowly researching it. We have a grower here that grows all coral including some clams in a greenhouse under shade!

 

[seafd]

according to cityrating.com Cleveland receives only 66 clear days a year and 202 days of cloudy weather... Compared to Key West which gets 104 clear days and only 107 days of cloudy weather... That combined with my 23 years of living in Cleveland makes me think that solar tubes aren't going to cut it... I mean what is the plan when you have 3 ft of snow covering the solar tubes on your roof for the 9 months of winter? I'm pretty sure you aren't going to want to climb on your roof every single time it snows. A side note, Cleveland sucks!!!

 

[Just2Many]

according to cityrating.com Cleveland receives only 66 clear days a year and 202 days of cloudy weather... Compared to Key West which gets 104 clear days and only 107 days of cloudy weather... That combined with my 23 years of living in Cleveland makes me think that solar tubes aren't going to cut it... I mean what is the plan when you have 3 ft of snow covering the solar tubes on your roof for the 9 months of winter? I'm pretty sure you aren't going to want to climb on your roof every single time it snows. A side note, Cleveland sucks!!!

True and not so True!
First like I said there are people here that grow clams all year around in the CLEVELAND/Akron Area in a greenhouse, and it's shaded! They actually shade more in the winter due to solar radiation off of the snow!