Amazing Tanks

[DarinSchmidt]

the second tank, thats what i want eventually. Looks like the Solatubes do really well. But i think that i would have made my own solaRectangle to span the length of the tank and used LEDs around the outer edge to help out a little for dusk time. I would also want Solar panels to be powering this baby, i couldnt imagine the electric bill from this thing. I would most likely want to have some geothermal heating going on as well.....

[Boonjob]

The sad part is you could probably almost run a tank like that for close to 10 years for the upfront cost of solar panels, Solatubes, and geothermal heating....

[DarinSchmidt]

hmmm, i donno. If i had geothermal, it would be for my whole house since the cost of it is pretty high to install (def something i wouldnt do just for the tank lol). Solatubes arent all that expensive depending on brand and i found some solar cells online, 2Kw system for about 700 bucks. BUt oyu have to solder them together and make a housing, so maybe 1k for the cells and a $300 inverter and whatever other gadgets you want to use like a power conditioner or something. So i guess it could be 5-10 still maybe, but what about the next 50

[HUNGER]

cool tanks

[aquavista99]

I like the video of the first 1200 gallon reef tank the best but the video is pretty old. The owner of the tank is Stephen Hurlock of Denver, Colorado. I posted the exact same video of Hurlock's amazing reef tank on Ohio Reef back in 2008 (almost three years ago). 

http://www.ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=3974.msg29862#msg29862

Running solatubes as the primary source of light on a 1200 gallon reef tank in the second video would not be my first choice for SPS corals in this region. I already know what natural Ohio sunlight will do to SPS ( ie, brown planet, brown dragon, brown $500 efflo, brown crush, brown superman, brown sunset, brown shortcake, etc), but solatubes may be a very good option if you live in a sub tropical (Southern California or South Florida) or tropical region (Hawaii, Fiji, Bali, etc).

[DarinSchmidt]

Aquavista99, yeah, i didnt think that it would be a good primary source, but as an added bonus as ohio is too cloudy most of the year and not enough direct sunlight. But Ohio doesnt do too bad in the summer (go figure right?) so you could turn down your lights some to save some energy or just let your corals benefit from all of the extra sunlight.

[aquavista99]

Unfortunately, the sunlight in the Midwest, even during the hot summer months, is the wrong spectrum and is not direct enough to sustain a thriving SPS reef. There is a reason why 99% of all coral reefs occur between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The sun is far more intense near the equator (ie, all natural coral reefs live between 30°N and 30°S of the equator).

Aquavista99, yeah, i didnt think that it would be a good primary source, but as an added bonus as ohio is too cloudy most of the year and not enough direct sunlight. But Ohio doesnt do too bad in the summer (go figure right?)"

[lazylivin]

I think corals grow there mainly due to the warmer water. There are a number of successful aquaculture facilities growing corals with sunlight. i.e. Coral Ranch, Reef Systems. In fact Coral Ranch has had numerous coral spawning events. Reef Systems says that there corals look best in the fall because the light is to intense at that shallow depth for most coral in summer also I think coral ranch uses shade cloth for that reason as well.

[DarinSchmidt]

yeah, i was talking to Tod (i think) at Reef Systems and they have to block 50% of the light, and even then he said that on some days its still too much.

[aquavista99]

In tropical climates where our corals originate, "the day night cycle is a simple 12 hours of sunlight, and 12 hours of darkness with short intermediate transitions as the sun rises and falls quickly on the horizon compared to its slower transition as we move north or south of the equator. Due to the relatively small amount of cloud cover at these latitudes its also a lot more intense for longer periods of time, and nights are typically brighter during the peak periods of the Luna cycle."  In simple terms this means that your average day night cycle on a reef, consists of around 10 hours of intense illumination, 2 hours of intermediate lighting at each end, and around 10 hours 'just' short of total darkness, dependent on the moons position in the sky.

Based on my personal observations, most SPS  grown under natural sunlight conditions from this region tends to turn otherwise colorful SPS into various shades of brown SPS, which is why I think running solatubes as the primary source of light would not be my first choice (nor second or third, etc) for maintaining an SPS ecosystem/tank.   The last time I was at Reef Systems, they had metal halide lights with Lumenarc III reflectors hanging over their SPS. Marine Solutions switched to halides over their SPS as well a few years ago with great success. I may be wrong, but the last time I was at the Coral Ranch, I thought I saw artificial light over the small ORA SPS frag tank?

[DarinSchmidt]

In tropical climates where our corals originate, "the day night cycle is a simple 12 hours of sunlight, and 12 hours of darkness with short intermediate transitions as the sun rises and falls quickly on the horizon compared to its slower transition as we move north or south of the equator. Due to the relatively small amount of cloud cover at these latitudes its also a lot more intense for longer periods of time, and nights are typically brighter during the peak periods of the Luna cycle."  In simple terms this means that your average day night cycle on a reef, consists of around 10 hours of intense illumination, 2 hours of intermediate lighting at each end, and around 10 hours 'just' short of total darkness, dependent on the moons position in the sky.

Based on my personal observations, most SPS  grown under natural sunlight conditions from this region tends to turn otherwise colorful SPS into various shades of brown SPS, which is why I think running solatubes as the primary source of light would not be my first choice (nor second or third, etc) for maintaining an SPS ecosystem/tank.   The last time I was at Reef Systems, they had metal halide lights with Lumenarc III reflectors hanging over their SPS. Marine Solutions switched to halides over their SPS as well a few years ago with great success. I may be wrong, but the last time I was at the Coral Ranch, I thought I saw artificial light over the small ORA SPS frag tank?

yes but also the depth in which they are in the water plays a factor. most of us have corals within 24" from the surface, which some of the corals that we have are found within 10 meters from the surface.

Reef Systems, from what I remember them telling me, installed MH's because the corals werent getting long enough sunlight, esp during the winter. They would use the MH's for a couple hrs only, def not during the day.

[aquavista99]

There are SPS thriving less than 2 feet of water throughout the tropical regions as well, where the sun is much more intense than here in sunny Ohio. Sorry, but the amount of light and its intensity during the day in Ohio is just not the same as Bali or Fiji.

yes but also the depth in which they are in the water plays a factor. most of us have corals within 24" from the surface, which some of the corals that we have are found within 10 meters from the surface.

[DarinSchmidt]

I'm not sure which are above 2' in the tropics but ill have to look those up and see if there are any pictures of how they look. I don't think solar tubes are good as a primary source but I do think it would be a good additional for a Fuller spectrum for those who use LEDs and possibly PC.

[aquavista99]

I'm not sure which are  [below]  2' in the tropics but ill have to look those up and see if there are any pictures of how they look.

They look like this 

[coral ranch]

We do use extra lighting in the summer but only because almost everything but our sps need a 40% shade cloth. In late spring and early summer before the cloth goes on we get some really great color on most of our sps. If the shade cloth was not on we would get that color through the whole summer. I had someone spend about 2 hours doing all the measurements on the light in the green house before the shade cloth was put on and our 12000k 400 watt halides at 4" deep did not come close to the ambient natural sunlight in the green house. We will run some lights to counter act the washed out appearance that the natural sun gives corals in that shallow of water.With out that it's like looking at them under a yellowish 10000k bulb. Alot of our regulars know once they get our corals home and in their tanks were most of their lighting has a little more blue in it the corals color will look great.
 Aquavista is correct the sun in the tropics is much more intense but many of the acros and sps are collected for the hobby at 10 to 30 feet deep, some even more. Using shallow holding tanks in green houses (mere inches in depth) help better to replicate the correct lighting. If you ever bought a brilliantly colored acro colony and it browns up or loses it's intense color despite the fact your water quality and lighting are excellent there is a good chance the colony was taken from extremely shallow water.