Solartube Lighting

I was watching a show about this lighting and thought that it might be a good solution for lighting a reef tank. Now or course you would need suplimental lighting for overcast days or maybe not I dont know.

Has anyone thought of running thier reef tanks on solar lighting?

These solartubes are basically a skylight that has a very good reflector built in to direct the light down a mirrored tube. You then route the tube where ever you want and in this case it would be routed to right over the tank.

 

No one has any ideas about usng solar lighting? Maybe I just need to wait until the sun comes up to get a response on this type of topic. =)

 

LMAO, that was funny. I read your post, but didnt write anything down b/c I have never seen what your talking about. Nor do I have any exp. with it. Sorry


Luna

 

i think i saw someone somewhere else that was doing this... not sure if hes (or shes) on here

 

We have it in our kitchen, but like you said on overcast days its pretty dark in there. We actually just did a remodel in there and put some actually lights in there because most of the time is was just to dark.

 

Hmm, well i guess it might not work so well unless I move to arizona or new mexico.

 

I looked into these and have seen write-ups from a few folks using them. Southern California, Florida, and Arizona ore the types of places where you could use this for your primary light over a reef tank. One good way to think about it is if the sun doesn't support a reef sitting off the coast at your same lattitude, it will probably not support a reef in your living room without some amont of artificial lighting added in.

Also, these babies aren't cheap and typically involve more installation than the average home owner is going to pull off themselves. I seem to recall that it would have run me a few thousand each to put them in. Some of this depends on your individual architecture. If you have a flat roof with full sun exposure directly over your tank location, things will be easier/cheaper than if you have a floor or 2 of living space between your roof and your tank, or if the roof happens to be pitched away from your best sun exposure.

If you want to do something that is going to decrease your tanks carbon footprint regardless of how much it costs you upfront, then SolarTubes can probably help. If you are looking for a way to stretch your reef budget, they are not going to be your magic bullet.

 

I though that I'd post a link for those who aren't familiar. I think that there are a few similar products in the marketplace as well.

Solatube Daylighting System and Tubular Daylighting Devices for residential or commercial daylighting and sunlighting needs are the smart, green and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional skylights

 

i believe tangster has one of these
i think they still have metal halide and VHO actinics though