SolaTubes for reef tanks

[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]

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










[IMG]
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...I/DSC01688.jpg[/url]

[DannyPSI]

[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]

Originally posted 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..

[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.

[kochu]

You know this is what I have been wondering for a long time!! I am right at the tropics in Kerala the southern tip of India.
O have a 200gal Reef that’s ahmmmm OK. I have always wanted a large wall to wall tank in the sitting room. I was afraid; considering the cost of electricity and normal power outages in a developing economy.
This sola tube idea stuck me early on but I did not come across this forum. To-day I did.
Now I will start planning.
But there is a problem, my house is double storied and the tube has to go to the top. Any one who tried this?
I have 3-4 years gap for planning and slowly collecting all needed equipment. I plan to have a sump with Mangroves that will take care of the nitrates problem.
It is my hope that I will have a nice reef with seeded oysters that will not be harvested. So in times of need it will be a good investment!! A ready money source as the pearls would be really huge *smile*.
But I do not know how to decide all the equipments needed. Any body who can point me in the right direction?
Reef keeping is nascent in India. But we will catch up.

[onetrickpony]

I am in the process of remolding my next house
The room I will have my next tank in faces east
So the tubes will be on the East side I will have them straight down I am planning on using the 20" tubes
So today the east side got sun from 7am to 5 pm
I am going to frame the 20" tubes in a false chimney
It will raise them to get more direct sun light
I think it make a big difference in the winter with the shorter days
But as plans go, I will have too se how things work out
Ken

[Lordhelmet]

More pitures. this is the only way to go for lighting IMO

[Lordhelmet]

More pitures. this is the only way to go for lighting IMO

[Lordhelmet]

More pitures. this is the only way to go for lighting IMO

[Chihuahua6]

I have a question for those of you with Solatubes installed. I have 3 14" Suntunnels installed, two face south, one faces east and we get lots of sun here. The tank will be 90X48X30 so I know the 3 tubes will not be enough to grow the types of high light corals I will be growing. Can someone advise me on a possible supplemental lighting scheme that would suit my needs? Here is my need list:
1. Lowest operating cost. I added to tubes partly to defer some of the electrical costs so I don't want to add a ton of wattage if I can help it.
2. Lower heat. I do not want to use a chiller. Halides are okay but not so many as to raise the temperature of the water.
3. The back portion of the tank can be darker, meaning every square inch of the tank does not need to be lit up.
4. Modestly high light. I don't believe in the "more is better" concept when it comes to lighting. To give an idea, I had 2 175 watt 10K with actinics on my standard 90 gallon. That was perfect to me. I am open to trying 6500 as recommended by Anthony Calfo.
Thanks.

[JMBoehling]

Amanda,

I have (04) 54 Watt (48") T5HO's on my 90. (02) are the new Uri True Actinic and (02) are the Geismann Actinic Plus. These lights coupled with the Natural light are perfect for my Tort, Hoeki, Chips Acro, Tricolor, Milli's, other various SPS along with lots of softies and anemones.

T5's use relatively low wattage and produce very little heat. Personally I wouldn;t consider any other type of supplemental light for your setup.

Can;t wait to see some pics.

Later,

Jim

[Chihuahua6]

Hi Jim. I actually answered your post a few days ago but it didn't go through.
So are your T5s actinic only?
Anthony Calfo just told me that if I do want to do a shallow water Indo-Pacific biotope with some Yellow Fiji Leathers (I love this coral) that I should use as many halides as I would be using if I didn't have any tubes at all. He didn't think I would be impressed with the output of the tubes. It's hard to disagree with him since he grows coral with sunlight for a living but all the folks here seem to have success with the tubes. I may just buy a light meter to test how much output these tubes give off and compare it to a halide fixture. I'm pretty sure I will have to add some halides since the tank is 30" deep and with the 48" width it would take so many flourescent tubes to get good coverage. Perhaps I should get corals from slightly deeper waters than the Yellow Leather. I have so many decisions to make.
BTW the tank is going to be made from plywood sealed with epoxy with a glass front and side panel on one end. My husband is going to build it. If you are handy at all it's a very affordable way to get a large custom tank. I can't wait!

[JMBoehling]

Originally posted by Chihuahua6
Hi Jim. I actually answered your post a few days ago but it didn't go through.
So are your T5s actinic only?

I have (02) 54 Watt Uvi (Old Uri) T%HO Super Actinics and (02) Geissman Actinic Plus.

I'm pretty sure I will have to add some halides since the tank is 30" deep and with the 48" width it would take so many flourescent tubes to get good coverage.

Watt for Watt, you will get better PAR and coverage with T5's than Halides. Halides give you more of a Spotlight than Flood light coverage. Your previous post indicated you are concerned about energy consumption and heat. These are two reasons why I recommended T5's to you. As far as depth, your reef will only be 6"'s deeper than mine. I currently have Pink and Blue Stylo, Chip's Acro, Richmond Tricolor, and Green Milli at 18" from the waters surface and they are doing GREAT, with only (04) T5's and the (02) 10" Solar Tubes.

Just sharing what formula has worked well for me here. Best of luck with your decision.

Jim

[Airman]

Kochu welcome to reefcentral. I don't think you need intense lighting for oysters. If you are going to have other corals in your tank than invest in a lighting system.