Thought some of you might like this idea - Solar for lighting.

I saw the thread also but I didnt like the idea cause the best time to see your tank is when the lights are on. With the Solar lighting that will be at noon time when the sun is directly over your house. That isnt good for me cause im never home at noon time. lol I would rather pay more for the MH and control when the lights are on and off.
 
Thanks for posting that! I love the idea and the energy savings too. I have all these ideas for a house built around a fishtank when I can save for and design a bigger house and I think I will have to incorporate those into the design, his tank is very lovely!
 
i have already talked to the company and it is even more affordable than he posted for one 4' kit is about 220 so for under 700 bucks you could have three. and they are located in west palm i think he said
 
With the new breakthroughs in peel and stick photovoltaic panels we can eventually power our metal halides with solar power, and the rest of the house as well. Right now, they have systems that can be installed in minutes rather than days like the old tech and get higher power outputs.

We could save drilling large holes in the roof, and people with two story homes could have this too.
 
Yea that was a great thread. I think the best of both worlds if you could have the solar lights and then solar panels to run the rest of the tank along with supplemental lighting for viewing at non peak hours especially works if you don't mind the acintic look.

They even have pamphlets at Home Depot now for the photovoltaic cells installed. I've been meaning to call and see how much it runs for a full system.

I am stuck with the two story as well so no solar tubes for me.
 
The old school technology is extremely expensive. Unless you consider $50,000 not extreme. The orange apron guys have long had solar at their disposal but the cost has been prohibitive. With the new peel and stick, it will bring the costs and installation times down.
 
I would still use some supplemental lighting for color but the cost of that upfront vs a full light setup is probably the same or even a little cheaper.

I guess if you moved you could take it with you. Just a little drywall patch and a couple shingles right? or don't move. :)
 
I am really looking into this. Its awesome. I bought my christmas Island emperor from a reefer in Melbourne who has this on his tank for over 5 yrs. It looks better then any lighting I have ever seen. It was on a 340 tall and had two carpets that had been in there for the entire time. Thanks for the link to the post though. Helps push me further toward it.
 
I've seen one tank like that, and it was maybe 4 or 5 years ago.....in the morning the tank looked real nice....but late in the day, it was pretty yellow! they guy was talking about puting some kind of opaque blue "lens" on the thing to enhance the color. it was more of a skylight, I think.......iot was square instead of round.....maybe those solar tubes were not around yet when he made it....but it was a cool idea!


I saw a thread a while back from a guy in .......Spain maybe? Portugal? he had an outside tank with a glass top on it with a DIY fridge chiller that was really nice.......it was actually outside though.....he probably spent as much on cooling and heating the tank as he would have lighting it with halides......but it was cool anyway!

I'm REALLY impressed with how good that guys tank looked! but on the other hand.......his coral colors were pretty crappy under the metal halides! I have some of the same corals as he does.....and He wasn't getting very good color at all under the metal halides! people were kinda thumping on how his corals were colored better in the natural light.....but I wonder if maybe his water quality was better after the build......

the thing that I found most interesting is when he said that he didn't have algae problems.....and that his bryopsis went away when he switched over........

but super thanks for directing us to the thread! thatg's a goodf one for sure!
 
With some T-5 lighting I think it would look really nice and the guys corals are really good. The nice thing about the suntubes is they are 95% reflective if I recall. That is alot of light compared to the ones a long time ago. My parents have a few and it really brings a really white nice light in. Nothing yellow about it at all.

I know many couldn't be able to do it, but I think would be a neat feature.
 
I didn't read on about his algae issues but noted what he said in his first few posts. Generally speaking you wont have algae problems unless you have high nutrients (nitrate, PO4). Plants use different lighting to help grow so its possible the shift in light facilitated getting rid of some (although bryopsis is naturally predated on by nudibranchs, fish, and other critters. I'd have to look close at his stock to try to figure out what made it go away or if it was the shift in lighting alone)

Looks like a very clean tank to me, and a guy to go through the trouble of putting a lighting change into his house like that probably spends the time and energy to keep it nice.

You may not prefer the light but you're looking at a picture taken which is not the real thing which is further distorted by your monitor. I bet that tank is absolutely breathtaking up close. Anyone up for a swim? :)
 
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