Anyone use natural sun light?

[YodaHart]

I was wondering if anyone is using natural sun light for their aquarium. I'd like to see an indoor setup using nsl. I've seen pictures, but they almost never compare to the real thing. I'd be willing to drive almost anywhere in Florida to see it.

TIA

[orb]

not here, but in case you missed this thread, it's pretty good. really nice setup, but when he finished building his tank he moved lol. http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=318473&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

[mobikobeyob]

FWIW, Dr. Mac's uses NSL.

Mobi:D

[reed_5point0]

Sola Tubes are good for it I hear.

[YodaHart]

Originally posted by reed_5point0
Sola Tubes are good for it I hear.

Yeah, that's what I was looking into. I read the thread over in the Advanced section about them and it was very intreging. I also found this page:

this great thread (http://www.masa.asn.au/rtaw/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=journal&Number=64961&page=6&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1)

where someone in Australia had a lot of success with them.

I was just hoping to be able to see how they look and work with my own eyes, before I start cutting holes in my roof :rolleyes:

[Thorsx]

I was considering sola tubes but my wife would not stand for me to poke any more holes in the house!

[Lutefisk]

You'd think that living in Florida more of us would be using natural light.

[Mr Neutron]

They sound nice but each unit is suprisingly expensive and for SPS I didn't want the uneven spread and intensity. I would have had to install a bunch of tubes to light up my frag tank evenly throughout the day. You'd want to supplement with other lights for that (and for cloudy days) so that kinda defeats the purpose.

This is what Dr Mac mentions about them:

The Sola Tubes provide lots of light, but it is natural sunlight and looks yellow to my eyes. Things that are fluorescent will not look like much, I think some actinic supplementation is needed for best coloration on most corals.

[Damn Yankee]

It gets cloudy over the ocean too, so whats the problem. I have a green house which I have a tank in . Not set up YET !

[Mr Neutron]

No problem if you realize the tradeoffs and the downfalls to using solar tubes. Greenhouses are a different subject entirely since this thread is about natural light for indoor tanks.