SolaTubes for reef tanks

[JMBoehling]

Sizing depends on what type of Supplemental lights you are planning to run, if any...

For the 120" tank I would think (04) 14" ers would work great, unless you can step it up to the 20"ers.. Unfortunately you'll need some major planning on boxing out rafters and joists, as 20" Tubes don't fit very well on 16" centers...

On a 90, the 10" tubes are all I could fit, in addition to my supplemental T5's.. Even at that, my T5 bulbs block the natural light a bit..

Later,

jIm

 

[sushiking]

Wish I could use SolaTubes. But my tank is on the lower level of my home which would require too many elbows and thus decreasing the efficiency of the tubes.

 

[T Man]

I'VE GOT A 4FT. BY 4 FT. BY 2 FEET TALL PLASTIC TANK THAT I'VE BEEN EXPOSING TO THE SUN IN THE AFTER NOON [ ABOUT THREE HOURS] A DAY AND THE REST OF THE DAY IS SOLEY AMBIENT SUN LIGHT.
I HAVE A VERY SMALL ATOLL IN THE CENTER OF THE LAGOON THAT HAS SPS ON TOP OF IT AND VARIOUS FRAGS DOWN BELOW MOSTLY SOFTIES. THEY REACT TO THE SUN LIKE THEY WERE IN THE WILD, WHICH ALLOWS FOR ACCELERATED GROWTH. I'M ALL FOR NATURAL LIGHTING, AFTER ALL THATS WHAT WE STRIVE TO GIVE OUR INVESTMENTS.TINMAN

 

[DgenR8]

Tin man,
Please do not post in all caps, it is the BB equivelant of screaming at us.
I promise we'll hear you just fine if you take off that caps lock.

 

[Sanjay]

has anyone tested light output from the sola tubes ? I am curious as to how it compares to MH in terms of intensity and spread.

sanjay

 

[JMBoehling]

I f you go to the Solatube brand website, they have some light ouput reading for geographic areas, etc.. If my memory serves correct, I believe a 22" Tube is equivalent to a 400 Watt Halide during peak intensity.. My 10" tubes have the "appearance" of a 175 Halide... The natural light shimmer easily overpowers my (04) 55watt T5HO's. If anyone wants to allow me to borrow a light meter I will run some tests and post my findings...

 

[DannyPSI]

Love my SOLATUBES 360 gallons

Love my SOLATUBES 360 gallons

Guys! I was browsing around this time last year and found this thread. I went out and remodel house and put a 360 gallon 96x25x36 in my wall. I went out and had (3) 15 inch solatube in my wall. After a few months I add (8) 4 ft. VHO and (2) 400 halide.


Here are some pic. from beginning.
July 05

 

[DannyPSI]

More Pic.

More Pic.

 

[AJT]

So are you happy with them? With adding 2 400 MHs, do you think adding 2 more sola tubes would have been better?

Can you give us some feedback?

Thanks
Andy

 

[DannyPSI]

I am happy with them but i don't know i would go with halide. Some days are great but winter is not that sunny. I can tell you one thing is with Halide on and noon time arriving you can see sunlight beam stand out. I wouldn't mine adding another 2 but I would still add halide. I run halide 8 hours a day also so i get great lighting for Hard corals. If you are into LPS only tube would be plenty.

My electric bill is only another 60 dollar or so a month with this setup. My brother inlaw set up a 450 gallon with the following setup and light bill is around another 150 dollar.

450
(8) 400w halide
(6) 6ft VHO


So for any day of the week I would use Sunlight. Also don't give out any heat at all. Hope this help some of you guys to decide.

 

[DannyPSI]

FYI those pic above are 8 months or so apart. Just to show you the growth. The rest of my setup are as follow.


2 dart on return
1 dart on close loop with om 4 way
1/2 hp chiller
asm g4x modify skimmer
K2R Cal. reactor
Kalk reactor

 

[JMBoehling]

Very nice setup Danny PSI! Love to see fellow "Tubers" show off their systems...

 

[AJT]

Thanks for the info. I am getting close to designing my new house & some how I am going to use sunlight on the new 500gal.



Andy

 

[DannyPSI]

A little suggestion is if you are able to place on south side of roof. You will be getting extreme amount of sunlight all day. I get extreme like for only about 4 hours a day. Mine is place on east side so around 4 my lighting is okay. If I ever build my new home I will design it to sit on the south side of my house. I think if I had (3) 21 tubes i might not need halide as much. my just 2-4 hrs a day for backup.

 

[pvtschultz]

Does anyone have a link to somewhere that shows minimum (or maximum) winter solar inclination? I am in WI and the layout of my new house is as such that that tank will have to be on the north side of the house, but near the midpoint. If I put them on the North side, I will have about 8 ft of tubing, on the south side it will end up being over 10 ft. Is it possible to put them near the rigde line but have them stick up higher above the roof so in the winter the ridge doesn't block the sunlight? Meaning, is there a set height of these products on the roof or can I have it stick up an extra foot to keep them on the south side.

The other alternative is to install the halides and only run them during the winter half or third of the year to make up for the lack of sunlight.

 

[JMBoehling]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7341701#post7341701 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pvtschultz
Does anyone have a link to somewhere that shows minimum (or maximum) winter solar inclination? I am in WI and the layout of my new house is as such that that tank will have to be on the north side of the house, but near the midpoint. If I put them on the North side, I will have about 8 ft of tubing, on the south side it will end up being over 10 ft. Is it possible to put them near the rigde line but have them stick up higher above the roof so in the winter the ridge doesn't block the sunlight? Meaning, is there a set height of these products on the roof or can I have it stick up an extra foot to keep them on the south side.

The other alternative is to install the halides and only run them during the winter half or third of the year to make up for the lack of sunlight.

The dome is part of the flashing so it must remain flush with the roof top. One thought.. I wonder if Solatube could come out with a "Y" connector allowing you to install a Roof dome on both sides of the roof to one single tube to your tank..

Another thought.. You probably only need about 4 hours of intense natural light for your SPS.. Just supplement with some T5Ho's and your good...

Best of luck with your project..:beer:

 

[pvtschultz]

Well, I did some math...I think. Is it just me, or are degrees of latitude the angle that the sun is from the normal at the location (since the sun is an "infinate" distance away). For example:

Milwaukee, WI is at 43 degrees north latitude. At the dead of winter, the sun is at the tropic of capricorn which is 23 degrees south latitude. All totalled that is 66 degrees from the normal at high noon (solar noon). So that means that the sun is coming in at an angle of 24 degrees from the horizontal. So if my roof is at or less than 24 degrees, I should always be able to get sun at the surface, and since the house is a ranch, I should be able to get more dawn and dusk sun than a normal roof.

Here's a pic of the house. You are looking at the east face (the front) and the tubes would stick through near the peak of the north face. What do ya'll think? Is the north going to work for me?

 

[JMBoehling]

If it means an extra 4 feet of tubing, I would go for the South... Even with the relatively low pitch on your roof, I think the Southside is my recomendation.. I've got at least 12 feet of tube to my roof and the light is still pretty intense..

Let's see what other's have to say..

 

[JMBoehling]

If you install on the South side, do you add any 45 of 90 degree elbows that you wouldn't have on the north side? You want to stay away from hard turns..

 

[pvtschultz]

Yeah, I think that moving them to the south side will add 2-45 degree elbows/bends to the piping. I don't have the house yet, we close on June 2nd, so I'm not real familiar with how it will all be run quite yet. I may be able to move the tank to another wall, but I'm really not sure yet if that will work or not. I guess we'll have to wait and see when June comes. I'll be sure to have plenty of pictures of the in-wall setup and the installation of the tubes when the time comes. Stay tuned I guess.