Derek Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 One of my aquariums sits next to a window. I was sitting in front of it today before my lights came on admiring the different colors that show up in regular sunlight. Does anyone know what temperature / color combination would mimic sunlight? I think the closet that I have seen has been a 250 watt metal halide bulb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Sunlight is 5500K and blue sky is 7000K. I'm guessing though matching the actual spectrum might be a challenge. Using color temperature and lux/PAR/PUR meters help some in quantifying what we have on our tanks but I'm still frustrated in not have an easy way to see the full spectral output on my tanks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michae52 Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 You can get pretty close with some GE 50's Chroma's and GE 75's at 1 to 1. I think that Verilux Full Spectrum also will work. I think Patricks also found a combination that worked pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+o0zarkawater Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Get some sun tubes. http://www.sun-dome.com/ I know Caferacermike was going to go this route at one point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 I was thinking about sun tubes. They would be really cool. The only problem would be no more canopy which can mean fishies on the floor. Get some sun tubes. http://www.sun-dome.com/ I know Caferacermike was going to go this route at one point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 I'll have to check those out. You can get pretty close with some GE 50's Chroma's and GE 75's at 1 to 1. I think that Verilux Full Spectrum also will work. I think Patricks also found a combination that worked pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 Thanks. I'll probably have to get some controllable LED fixtures at some point. I just have the TruLumen strips now. Sunlight is 5500K and blue sky is 7000K. I'm guessing though matching the actual spectrum might be a challenge. Using color temperature and lux/PAR/PUR meters help some in quantifying what we have on our tanks but I'm still frustrated in not have an easy way to see the full spectral output on my tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I was thinking about sun tubes. They would be really cool. The only problem would be no more canopy which can mean fishies on the floor. Get some sun tubes. http://www.sun-dome.com/ I know Caferacermike was going to go this route at one point. Screens would protect against this and still let the light through. I have them on both of my tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caferacermike Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Oh wow an idea from my way past. I reframed my ceiling to lower it to about 18" above the tank, then installed 3 solar tubes through the work and through the attic. I spaced them evenly to light up a 400g tnak. The idea was that I was just going to build flaps around the tnak on hinges attached to my work so that they could just be opened. The panels would have replicated the original canopy almost exactly. Then the foundation cracked and the rest is history. I still have the "nook" with the tubes installed, it now has a small table under it. The amount of light tat poured into the tnak was amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Ace(Hobogoto on MAAST and RC, and here too IIRC) has/had a solartube setup. Link to current build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2062633 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 As Timfish pointed out, daylight has many different colors to it. I would sy that my present 6500K MH is the closest I have seen to daylight colors. My 75G seaweed growout sits on a south exterior poarch. In the early part of the afternoon, sunlight strikes the tank directly for about an hour. I have never seen a more brilliant blue then the school of YellowTail Blue Damsels. I now have a 1000W MH at 6500K with the same brilliant irisdecent blue on the damsels. For a more subdued lighting combo, I used 40W Daylight Delux bulbs (6500K) from Home Depot at $6 each. I paired these with actinic 40W. If you had Ice Cap electronic VHO ballast, then you could overdrive the normal output florescents to 81W. To grow coral mass, the most bang for the buck is 6500K lighting. To activate coral florescants takes higher kelvin numbers thus the reason for the blue emphasis in reefers tanks. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 Awesome. Thanks. I have been throwing around the idea of going back to halides. I have LEDs now and things just do not seem to grow as quickly as they did when I had halide lighting over my previous tank. As Timfish pointed out, daylight has many different colors to it. I would sy that my present 6500K MH is the closest I have seen to daylight colors. My 75G seaweed growout sits on a south exterior poarch. In the early part of the afternoon, sunlight strikes the tank directly for about an hour. I have never seen a more brilliant blue then the school of YellowTail Blue Damsels. I now have a 1000W MH at 6500K with the same brilliant irisdecent blue on the damsels. For a more subdued lighting combo, I used 40W Daylight Delux bulbs (6500K) from Home Depot at $6 each. I paired these with actinic 40W. If you had Ice Cap electronic VHO ballast, then you could overdrive the normal output florescents to 81W. To grow coral mass, the most bang for the buck is 6500K lighting. To activate coral florescants takes higher kelvin numbers thus the reason for the blue emphasis in reefers tanks. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 One of the things I have been playing around with in my head is getting a double halide fixture for my 60" tank then instead of it having fluorescents fitting it with the LEDs that I already have. I have also been thinking about re-orienting my LEDs so that they are closer together. Right now they are each about 6" apart. I have them oriented perpendicular to the length of the tank. I am thinking about making them run parallel to the length of the tank and closer together. I am just not sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 I'd actually love to get a Giesemann Infinity fixture. Does anyone know a dealer in town? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Pretty sure aquatek used to be the local gisemann folks. Don't know if they still are or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Another consideration is the angle the light is hitting your corals. Many corals look very different when viewed from the top of a tank versus from the side the side of the tank. You might try putting one of your led fixtures ouside the tank so the light is hitting the corals from the same angle as the sunlight to see how close they look to natural sunlight from the same angle. It would be an interesting experiment to see if it's morte a functiuon of color temperature of the light or the angle the light is hitting the corals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 One of the things I have been playing around with in my head is getting a double halide fixture for my 60" tank then instead of it having fluorescents fitting it with the LEDs that I already have. I have also been thinking about re-orienting my LEDs so that they are closer together. Right now they are each about 6" apart. I have them oriented perpendicular to the length of the tank. I am thinking about making them run parallel to the length of the tank and closer together. I am just not sure. You could change the optical lens angle to difuse or focus more. Only you can say if that looks better or not. I do not always spread my lights evenly. I like the softer less bright look in areas of my tank. In other ares I have stronger lighting for a specific group of coral. A moving fixture that travels the length of a tank is more usually used in commercial growout sysytems to reduce the need for more lights. However, I have seen it used in a private display tank with spectacular effects. I liked the changing light beams and shadows, it made for a more realistic display mimicing dappled sunlight combined with glitter lines. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted February 24, 2012 Author Share Posted February 24, 2012 I do like having even lighting over the entire tank. I need to check a few things out. I have been having some problems with some LPS types, mainly torches and bubble corals. They bleach out and then the flesh retracts. Nothing starts eating them until the fresh retracts. I may try changing the orientation of my lights but I think when it comes down to it, I just do not have enough light. My anemone is doing okay but it's up in the upper 3rd of the tank and is right below the brightest LED strip that I have. I am a bit bummed because my oldest frogspawn colony is all retracted and nearly gone. It was my very first coral and I have kept it alive since the fall of 2006. Not a bad run but I was hoping it would be a lifetime companion (yes, I consider corals to be a companion and have on occasion talked to my xenia, don't judge me). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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