Harnessing the sun

[toddius]

Has anyone here used the sun for their tank lighting. I have seen one tank so far use sunlight supplemented with metal halides. I am working on plans for our new house and was tinkering with the idea of using a very large sky light to funnel down sunlight to a 1000 gallon built in tank and possibly using some metal halide for in the evening. Trying to simulate the reef lighting and save a little on electricity. I live very close to the gulf and plan on setting up the LR in the tank like a reef wall. Thanks for everyones input.

 

[fshhub]

no,
teh sun light is too risky, it can and wil druve up youtr temp of your tank, and also can cause algae problems, especially since the glass filters out all the spectrums of light that you want and not the ones you don't
if you do decide ot try it, be sure and do one thing, get a darn good chiller for your tank

 

[rhomer]

Not too long ago there was a post about a guy who used solar tubes for his tank. There is a web site that sells and installs these. They are to reduce the use of artificial lighting in the home. Try searching for solar tubes. Let us know what you find out.

 

[toddius]

I have seen the solar tubes and it's an option but if I want to make the tank a reef and use as little as even 6 watts per gallon I would be looking at 6000 watts (15 400w metal halides) which would still be tons of heat and electricty. I am still toying with the plans and have enough time to decide before it's set in stone. Just trying to weigh all of the options for the best results. Thanks for the input.

 

[birdy]

I did see a magazine article not too long ago, where someone used sky lights for his tank. It was a huge tank I think it was at least 1,000gal.
There is a special type of sky light you can get that only filters the damaging UV rays, we use it at the zoo I work at because some of our animals need the UV light.

 

[kelly]

Actually the sun would be the best possible lighting for a tank, as long as you keep the temperature in check. I was reading a book by Anthony Calfo on coral propagation, that is what he recommended. I think his operation was somewhere between 5,000 - 8,000 gallons. He did not have algae problems, and his corals did excellent. Remember water heats slowly, and retains it heat for a while.
I am not sure about how much spectrum change there would be from the glass, he used a green house for his business.

 

[jakepilot]

that is actually a good question...In college (marine biology major) we did a test using a 500 gallon tank and direct sunlight 3 hours a day 2 times a day it was a great learning expierence, anyway the net of the whole thing is this, we used the college's chiller ( it was huge and very very expensive) we were able to keep corals alive, BUT the algea in the tank was terrible, my advise is not to do this...

 

[joe's reefer]

get a public aquarium sized ozonizer(up to 6 feet tall) and chiller.but the glass and spectrums u can make up[ ur own mind.o and dont forget the turbos u need a couple thousand <img src="graemlins//urrr.gif" border="0" alt="[urrr]" />

 

[richard rendos]

Get solar glass for your sky light. It is quite a bit more expensive, but won't block light from sun like regular green glass aquariums are made from. This glass will not block out the spectrums of light either. As for temp., that kinda depends on the ambient temp in the room. If you keep the room cool, there would be no need for a chiller. If you have the means to try it, why not. What light does everyone think the natural coral reefs are using? No one would ever learn anything new unless they try something no one has tried before. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[kris walker]

I agree with Kelly and also Fshhub, sunlight is absolutely the best, but you must watchout for the heat.
Comparing the heat from sun to that from MH is completely different because of the physics (sorry, but true). Heat arising from MH comes from the heat around the bulbs in the air, it is not from infrared waves emitted by the bulbs. So if there is a fan blowing air around your MH bulbs away from the tank, then no problem, your tank will not be heated much.
With the sun, heat is transfered to your tank by the infarred waves contained in the sun's spectrum. There is no way to prevent the heating of the water from the sun. The only thing you can do is try to counter the effect with a chiller or by using some sort of sunlight filter that blocks out IR waves (I don't know of any).
One more thing with the sun. It is much brighter at longer wavelengths (lower frequency) than MH. So if you have a significant level of phosphate (> 0.02ppm) and/or nitrate (> 1-5ppm), you will get algae problems that you may not get with MH.
kris

 

[i got crabs]

there was an article in the 2002 reef usa somthing dont remebeer full name it is an annual magazine and a guy built a 2000 gallon take he made skylights over it and his tank looked really good.