crazy idea?? Solar Lights?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
R

rawley2

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 15, 2008
8
0
0
Florida
I posted earlier about building my first reef tank. Well my dreams of it being 7' deep have been shattered by the cost of glass think enough and the lighting requirements.

So I have scaled back to a 4' (48") deep tank.

Still a lighting problem but nothing like the problems I was facing with the deeper tank.

I seen these solar tubes installed before and they put out a CRAZY amount of light. This was even after it went through the diffuser like you would use in a normal home set-up.

What if I was to put a clear defuse (the same one as on the roof) and bring them down over the tank? The top of this tank is going to be nothing but cabinets all the way to the ceiling for access to the lights anyway so they would not be seen in the room and look unsightly. LOL Just put natural light on the reef.

A link to one of the name brands: http://www.glidevale.com/ Some more info on it: http://www.glidevale.com/downloads/Sunscoop Tubular Rooflights.pdf

I would still have metal halides for cloudy days.. Well maybe still not sure if they would be needed.. In real life they do have cloudy days.

Anyone ever tried them?

See any problems with using them?

Would love some feedback on this idea.
 
I had an idea close to this since our house is built facing north and the backyard is always sunny. The light constantly shines through my window and there was a tank in front of it, and ever since I took that tank down I let the shades open, but the sunlight coming in is brighter than my fluorescent lights on the other tanks in the room.

I thought about moving my 20L planted right in front of the window and fixating a sort of mirror that could reflect and disperse the natural sunlight.

I think its definitely possible. You just need to make sure the light intensity that comes from these is enough, but I guess you could always supplement it with your halides.
 
sounds like a good possiblilty you might wanna have some crazy reflectors to make sure allt he light hits the tank.... but i'm no expert so let the real DIY guys duke this one out
 
sounds like some serious house renovations there could get quite pricey but on the plus side of that no electricty cost for lighting afterwards
 
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