SolaTubes for reef tanks

[lead]

Hey thanks stuart,

Please keep me posted on how well your tank is doing. I am very interested in cutting my electric bill and have a more natural looking tank. How much did the 21" tubes cost you? My wife and I are currently making blueprints for our next home. My wife and I made a deal that she can plan out the house as long as I can have my new aquarium and greenhouse as part of the home. We are about a year out before we start actually building. I think that I am in big trouble with her designing the home. My wife has very expensive taste. You probably know how that is. I am planning on building a new tank for the house. I am want the tank to be 10 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 3 feet tall. I think you have solved my lighting problem. Now all I need to do is figure out how big to make the sump, refugium, and how much current to have. Do you have any suggestions for the size of sump, refugium, and the amount of current? I plan on having a lot of acropora, montipora, and few soft corals. Please keep me posted on the details of of your tank. I would like to know how much light, heat generated by the tubes, and any other specific that you care to share. Also I would like to know if you have any trouble with algea or red slime during the summer months. I would like to see some more pictures of your tank. I would like to see how the sunlight affects the color of the corals. I would sure appreciate your help.
Ed

 

[SAT]

Ed,

Good luck with the house design. One piece of advice: assume it will actually cost a lot more than the initial estimates.

I don't know how much the 21" tubes cost... they were buried in a lot of other stuff. I'm guessing the tubes cost a few $hundred each plus installation... which was probably more. However, I believe it comes out cheaper than a traditional skylight. Given what you're doing, the skylight costs probably don't matter much.

Note I have 3 21" tubes over a 7' x 2' area. Your tank would need at least 8 to get the same illumination. Whether that's bright enough for Acropora I couldn't say... you should probably supplement with VHO or MH. With that many tubes, you might do better with a huge skylight lined with mylar. Talk it over with your contractor or architect.

As for sump & refugium... make them as big as you can fit! Some refugiums are bigger than the main tanks. Just make sure you have a decent size closet to house all the aquarium stuff. Also be careful about placement... my aquarium closet is close enough to the kitchen for my wife to covet the space.

Rule of thumb for circulation is 10X the tank volume minimum. Not all of that has to pass through the sump or refugium. My tank has a surge device built in... if you can manage a surge device I highly recommend it.

I don't know how to measure the heat gain. An HVAC contractor might be able to help. If you size the cooling for MH you'll probably have more than you need. I suggest putting in a thermostatically controlled exhaust fan -- it's probably cheaper than a chiller most of the time.

I'll post some more pictures later, after it's better established. I don't think the skylight concept will be proven until it has run for at least a year.

 

[lead]

Stuart,

What do you think of this idea? I was going to place four 21 tubes over the top of the reef and a couple of 14 or 18 inch tubes across the lagoon area. I want the reef to come only 2 to 3 feet out from the back wall. This would leave a 1 to 2 foot beach or lagoon for the fish to swim around in. I was thinking that some time down the road. I would add a blue dotted sting ray or a marble shark. What type of corals have you placed in your tank? Do you plan on adding any acropora or montipora to your tank? What type of surge device are you using? Do you have any drawing or a place that I buy this device or a list of parts? I sorry for all the questions. I have only been doing this for a year. I am just totally consumed by this hobby. I love designing my tank and seeing what happens. I just finished my Mechanical Engineering Degree and this allows me to use some of those concepts that I learn in school.
Talk to you later,
Ed

 

[SAT]

Ed,

I think strongly lighting only the areas where corals are present makes sense. However, I suspect your setup would be considered dim for shallow-water Acropora species. Roughly speaking (and without doing any scientific measurements) I equate a 21" tube to a 250W MH lamp during the summer... and 1/2 of that during the winter. Assuming a 10'x3' effective surface area, many people would use about 3000W of MH lighting to achieve "strong MH" intensities.

Acropora and Montipora aren't available for my tank since it's a Caribbean biotype. For the time being I'm limiting myself to available West Florida hard corals (the most interesting I've found is Oculina robusta, which vaguely resembles a staghorn Acropora) and Florida/Caribbean softies. With a little luck I'll find the lighting I have to be adequate... but I may need more supplementation during the winter.

The surge is a 10G Reverse Carlson. You can find a few references by searching for RCSD. The original article was in the Winter 2000 issue of SeaScope.

 

[Gusto]

Stuart,
Do you have any updated phots of you set up? You should set up a web page on your tank.

Thanks,

 

[scot]

I also have a question, do the tubes raise the tank temp?

 

[tlc]

how big do blue dotted rays get? i would think a large animal would surely destroy your aquascaping.

 

[SAT]

Gusto, there's not much new to show. I don't even have fish in the tank yet (still waiting for the nitrites to disappear. after 14 weeks it's getting old ). At some point I'll post in the RC photo gallery.

scot, yes I do get some tank heating. I don't know how to quantify it, but I don't think it's bad compared to MH.

 

[lead]

Hey Stuart,

How are things going? It has been awhile since I last posted. I have been do some more research into sunlight as a supplemental source of light. I have few questions that you might be able to answer for me . Are you using any glass filter to block out the infrared or UV? If so what type of filter and the company that makes the filter so I can add that to my list of things to get for the new home? I was also wondering if you have had more than expect problems with algea than you would get with a new tank? That question might have to waite for a while to be answered completely because of how new your tank is. I was concerned about the amount of red light getting into your tank. All the reading that I have done on the subject says that the amount of red light that enters the tank cause algea to grow more quickly, but I would be interested in finding out if this is true and if you are having more problems with algea than normal.

I have another concern with UV. As corals are placed in higher UV concentrations, they develope too much s320 sun screen and they appear more cream colored on the areas exposed to the sunlight. I was wondering what your thoughts are and how you are going to deal with too much UV. I am still planning on adding the solar tubes to the new home. Is there anything that you would have done different with your current system?
Talk to you later,
Ed

 

[SAT]

Ed,

It's going pretty well except I'm getting tired of waiting for the nitrites to disappear (~0.3ppm) so I can feel good about adding more organisms. I'm pretty happy with the light. The main thing I would have done differently is close up the bottom of the tubes immediately after installation. That would have avoiding the tubes being coated with construction dust.

I don't have any UV filters. The light travels through the acrylic dome, reflects down the tubes, through a 2nd acrylic sheet covering the tube bottom, then through a 1/4" ordinary glass tank cover.

I havn't noticed any cream color on the corals. The Oculina and Cladocora have darkened from medium to dark brown and developed a slight metallic green sheen in the center of each polyp. The Briareum is starting to spread but shows no color change. The Pterogorgia polyps changed from white to tan very quickly; otherwise, it looks the same as when I got it six weeks ago (which is very nice).

I have a variety of algae in the tank but nothing out of control. Early on I had a diatom bloom, but that only lasted a week or two even after I started dosing silicate. I had a cyano bloom for about a month. Both diatoms and cyano are still present in small amounts. Hair algae started growing about a month ago but isn't choking anything. I have Bryopsys, Caulerpa, Halimeda, Valonia, red hair algae, and fleshy red algae, all growing slowly. Coralline spread rapidly over the original live rock and is slowly showing up elsewhere.

Note the inorganic phosphate levels are unmeasurably low using a Hach kit (<< 0.05 ppm). I also have a decent selection of herbivores, including astrea, ceriths, fighting conchs, stomatella, limpets, nerites, urchins, and a red Mithrax crab that likes hair algae.

I don't buy the theory that full spectrum light causes algae blooms. If you keep the nutrients down and have a good collection of herbivores, you should be OK regardless of spectrum.

 

[edfish]

On the UV question, my understanding (from reptile land where many diurnal herps need UV for Vitamin D/Calcium purposes) is that generally glass block UV rays. (you don't tan sitting in light from the window at home)

Hope that helps. I am fascinated by the solotubes idea. Ed

 

[salt lick]

acrylic blocks UV

acrylic blocks UV

SAT,
I believe the Acrylic dome on top blocks UV. This is a "feature" so the carpet and drapes dont fade.

I have two 13" SunPipes on my installation

see pics

 

[salt lick]

more sunpipe pics

more sunpipe pics

internal pic

 

[SAT]

salt lick,

:thumbsup: A few suggestions. First, the standard diffusers absorb about 1/2 the light. I suggest replacement with a clear acrylic sheet. Second, most of the light will hit the walls of your above-tank compartment rather than going straight down. I suggest either highly reflective paint or lining it with reflective mylar. Finally, it's likely the pair of 13" tubes won't be enough, particularly in winter, so plan on some flavor of supplement.

Good luck!

 

[cali_reef]

I don't think he will need much supplement lighting, even in the winter month. He lives Tehachapi; he should have more than enough light if he has the dome facing the right direction.

 

[SAT]

I don't think he will need much supplement lighting, even in the winter month. He lives Tehachapi; he should have more than enough light if he has the dome facing the right direction.

The domes are usually installed straight up, which is required for them to be weather proof (I suppose some brands might be different). In June the sun comes almost straight down. In December it's at significant angle, which has two effects. First, the light will be bouncing around the tube a lot more, losing some energy on each bounce. Second, the light comes out the bottom at the same angle it entered, hitting the sides of the cabinet instead of heading into the tank.

A pair of 13" tubes will probably yield about 1/2 the light of one of my 21" tubes (taking into account the smaller area and the increased reflections in a narrower tube). I think a 21" tube is about equal to a 250W MH bulb.

 

[reefsociety101]

It seems like the tank running the Solatubes is covered in algae. Ae you experiencing rapid growth of algae with the sun tubes?

_Mike

 

[SAT]

It seems like the tank running the Solatubes is covered in algae. Ae you experiencing rapid growth of algae with the sun tubes?

At the time the tank was still unstable and finishing up a cyano bloom (which was really ugly ). Yes, I grow a tremendous amount of algae of many different species, but no species predominates (luckily the Bryopsis and Valonia have been well behaved). Mostly the herbivores keep up. Nothing of consequence has been choked by the algae, including my Pterogorgia, which is notorious for that. I do have to pull out a few handfulls of Caulerpa and red & green hair algae clumps on a weekly basis (my snails ignore hair algae on the sand). The front glass needs cleaning about once a week.

BTW, my phosphates and nitrates are unmeasurable (PO4 << 0.05ppm; NO3 << 1ppm). I dose silicate and iron to promote diatoms and macros. I run skimmerless with an ATS. I feed about 1g of "Forumula 2" pellets and 1 oz of DT's daily to keep the cleanup crew & filter feeders happy. No fish yet.

My opinion is light spectrum has much less to do with algae blooms than nutrients and herbivores. I think the old adage about sunlight & algae comes from old books about FO tanks.

 

[reefsociety101]

Awesome. I will be moving into a house soon and really contemplating solatubes. Would you recommend it personally?

_Mike

 

[SAT]

I love my tubes. However, I don't want to set unrealistic expectations: you will almost certainly need to supplement with other lights, especially during the winter unless you live in the tropics. I think they will pay for themselves eventually in lower energy bills. I think the light they produce has a higher quality spectrum than any artificial lamp. And I really like the look of it.