Solatube Display at OC Fair

this might sound really stupid, but wouldn't it suck if u had these installed as ur primary lighting source and u have bad stormy weather for a week or more? it happens up here, i can't imagine just depending on the weather, i mean if u live in places where its sunny most of the year thats fine but if u live in rhode island where i'm from sure the summers are great scorching heat all summer, but the winters are brutal too and i definately recall going weeks at a time without seeing much sun. :/ #justsayin.

 

I have read Danna's stuff. I responded to your message. Agree we should definitely discuss further. Probably in another thread. We may be getting a bit off topic ;D

 

My understanding is light intensity, as measured by lux for example, can drop in half due to a cloudy day. However, this is due mainly to red and yellow light being filtered out. Corals don't use red and yellow so much, so, I don't believe it would make much difference at all actually. Maybe some, but certainly not close to 50%.

 

That is interesting!

I think the Solatube option would be for those in sunny areas like where I live in the East Bay of California. Now I just need to buy a house.

matt

 

Remember our eyes see certain colors much better. LUX is an almost useless measure, as it's based this visual sensitivity, which has almost nothing to do with actual light over a broad spectrum. Corals don't care much about most of the spectrums we see best. The big issue people report is that most of us are north of the equator and have shorter days in the winter. So, the light is inconsistent throughout the year and many people report needing more supplemental lighting in the winter.

 

Builder point of view

As a home builder i have installed several hundred Solar Tubes over the years and they are a great product to get light to areas in need. They have several options including a motor to close shaft and adjust incoming light. Along with 110v additional lighting up in the shaft out of view. Over the years have even tried several knock offs but none worked as well or even close and once i even removed one and put a Solar Tube in it's place because it was so bad.
I even contacted Solar Tube many years ago trying to get any lighting specs. they may have showing what kind of waves are coming out of their tubes but no information was given. At the time i was building my fish room to house's my 750 gallon reef and installed a 2' x 2' clear glass dual pane skylight in lieu of tubes.
There are so many factors when installing i believe that if they were to work it would be for only a few and not for the average install.
We all know what grows faster when an aquarium is set up where it get's alot of natural light and it's not corals. All threads i have seen showing tubes are on fairly new tanks with no follow up regarding coral growth and aquarium health. If they were all that we would be hearing about it since they have been around for 25 + years. As with sky lights great with dawn and dusk cycles

 

This thread being pulled back up is really interesting. This want even that long ago, and look at how many companies are including uv in there lights now. Talk about led driving our hobby forward at a fast pace!

Michael Rice
Marine Engineers Aquarium Blog
Sent from Tapatalk so excuse my poor English