Reef Central Online Community - Sky Light for reef tank?

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Sky Light for reef tank?

I currently have a ten foot 330 gallon tank that I do not really have any coral in it yet just fish, inverts and right now the only thing really requiring any high lighting are two anomies. I currently run this with some 20k t12's, 10k t8's, actinic t8's, and moon light leds for night.

I do plan on making the move into the corals in the near future and know that I am going to need to step up the lights to do so. I have been looking at the LED's and metal halide light systems which I know would work and trying to decipher the cost balance between which would make more sense.

With that said, in presenting this all to my wife she asked why I couldn't use a sky light? I honestly couldn't answer why that wouldn't work and got to thinking that might work best. My thought is that it would give me the truest light spectrum to nature and once installed it would be free which would be a great cost savings over the metal halide. Install wise it looks like it would cost less than either light upgrades. I could then get the majority of the light thru the several sky lights and use the old fluorescents to supplement the light if needed.

So let's hear it why is this nuts, and why would it not work, are there any down sides or reasons not to go this route?

There are people who do this and supplement with T5s. I think living in florida you could definitely pull it off. Just do some research and you'll find some info on it here.

I think with just a skylight the direct light will only hit the tank for a hour or two

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike_cmu04 (Post 17402706)

I think with just a skylight the direct light will only hit the tank for a hour or two

Well I was thinking I would get more with one of those domed tubed reflectors so it would get the light as the sun moved from different angles. Regardless, do I need only the direct sun-light? I would think aside from sun rise and set that I would still get more of the spectrum than I would with lights. Part of what I was thinking the down side may be though is getting all of the spectrum may cause side affects that I am not used to in a more controlled setting.

Still on the fence because I really like the idea of not using electricity for the lighting, but it may just be better to go towards led's and play it safe.

Thank you for your input!

Check this thread out from the Large Reef Tank section
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1790458

Quote:

Originally Posted by LIONFISH5740 (Post 17404760)

Check this thread out from the Large Reef Tank section
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1790458

Thank you, that is exactly what I needed to see.