Supplemental lighting by reflecting sunlight in the morning?

[R.Weller]

Our 300gal DT is installed on an inside wall with all filtration located in the fish room in the stairwell behind. The opposite wall is an exterior wall & recieves morning sunlight for 60 - 90 minutes. Previous generations of our reef tank were located on the outside wall, & it was always interesting to watch corals respond when direct sunlight would shine into the tank.

Over the last few days, I have started experimenting with reflecting sunlight onto the reef from across the room. The LPS & Zoa's tend to respond w/n 10 minutes, opening to their fullest extent. Here's a few images to describe the thinking...

Here's the full tank with reflected light:

Please disregard the awful aquascape as we had a tank crash in Dec & are slowly rebuilding.

The mirror casting the reflection is 44" x 32" (mind the mess...everyone is home right now):

This is a PoV from the mirror to the display tank as positioned on the floor:

This is view of a few of the SPS colonies in direct sunlight:

And some bubble-tip love:

Green/Brown Polyps after 10 min in direct sunlight:

Trumpet after 10 min in direct sunlight:

Orange Zoa's after 10 min in direct sunlight:

And finally, the concept design:

So the question is, has anyone tried using reflection to augment their lighting system? I appreciate that I won't be able to remove the LEDs from the canopy, but it seems to me that by harnessing the sun, I could save a little energy & give the corals a small portion of near-perfect lighting while having to account for adjustments in the morning. I work from home so having to make adjustments to the position & angles of the mirror(s) won't be an issue.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Hemmdog]

I shade my tank from the sunlight as much as possible. Last time I was on vacation the pet sitter opened the curtains the whole time, I came home to a tank of brown corals, it took over a month for them to return to their fluorescent hues I was used to. Too much zoo production.
I don’t use any lights in my house other than the tank lights to also avoid having less vibrant corals. The kitchen lights are the only exception and I use 10k bulbs and I only turn them on if the tank lights are on.
So no, I wouldn’t recommend what you are planning on doing, unless you are trying to grow out corals very quickly and don’t care about their color for resale to wholesalers, similar to an outdoor aquaculture setup.

 

[R.Weller]

I shade my tank from the sunlight as much as possible. Last time I was on vacation the pet sitter opened the curtains the whole time, I came home to a tank of brown corals, it took over a month for them to return to their fluorescent hues I was used to. Too much zoo production.
I don’t use any lights in my house other than the tank lights to also avoid having less vibrant corals. The kitchen lights are the only exception and I use 10k bulbs and I only turn them on if the tank lights are on.
So no, I wouldn’t recommend what you are planning on doing, unless you are trying to grow out corals very quickly and don’t care about their color for resale to wholesalers, similar to an outdoor aquaculture setup.

I had not considered the possibility of to much food production. I'll will have to read up on that topic.

I run the Blues for 12 hours & the Whites for 5. My thinking is that I might be able to reduce this period by minutes / hours if a sunlight supplement can be achieved. We're not attempting to resale...just enjoy our slice of ocean. Thanks for the comments.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Have you though about solar tubes? They would keep that reflection from blasting across your room. Some folks and public aquariums with monster tanks to light use solar tubes to deliver natural light into the display. It cuts down on having a crazy high bill to not only purchase and keep up with the lighting maintenance, but on the electric bill as well.

 

[R.Weller]

Have you though about solar tubes? They would keep that reflection from blasting across your room. Some folks and public aquariums with monster tanks to light use solar tubes to deliver natural light into the display. It cuts down on having a crazy high bill to not only purchase and keep up with the lighting maintenance, but on the electric bill as well.

I think solar will be the evolution. I suspect there are many agricultural applications for the tubs you reference. I'll do some research on this as well.

For now, this is a project we can do with supplies around the house. It gives the kids something hands-on that will have an immediate impact. We have sunshine this morning in Kansas City, & I cannot get over the polyp extension in today's trial. Even the SPS are reacting.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

I think solar will be the evolution. I suspect there are many agricultural applications for the tubs you reference. I'll do some research on this as well.

For now, this is a project we can do with supplies around the house. It gives the kids something hands-on that will have an immediate impact. We have sunshine this morning in Kansas City, & I cannot get over the polyp extension in today's trial. Even the SPS are reacting.

Just be careful temp wise. A focused point of sunlight bouncing off a mirror can have some real punch behind it.

 

[mtraylor]

Here is a reference. I believe there are several types you van choose from.

Build Thread - ***AquaViva 110Gal Solatube Reef Tank Build***

www.reef2reef.com

 

[R.Weller]

Just be careful temp wise. A focused point of sunlight bouncing off a mirror can have some real punch behind it.

Good point. The total system volume is around 425 gal across 4 tanks (3 are behind the wall) with 4 heaters. If this adds some heat, that should help on the utility bill as well. We'll remember to keep an eye on temp as the project unfolds.

 

[R.Weller]

Here is a reference. I believe there are several types you van choose from.

Build Thread - ***AquaViva 110Gal Solatube Reef Tank Build***

www.reef2reef.com

Brilliant! Thank you.

 

[jguerin88]

always wondered this too

 

[lilgrounchuck]

always wondered this too

There a tidal gardens video a while back I remember watching and he described how some things did great in the sunlight in the greenhouse and others not so much. Some also did better in certain times of year than others. I think it had something to do with type/intensity/duration of the light in Ohio where the greenhouse is vs what they would receive in their native environments. If I remember right it was the shorter daylight months that fared better than the long daylight months of summer.

 

[Uncle99]

I had some sunlight hit my reef tank for about 1 hour a day when I did my last rebuild.
All I got was tons of hair algae. Sunlight contains a lot of the red spectrum.
When I put up a shade to block the sunlight, in 3 months, all algae was gone.

 

[R.Weller]

I had some sunlight hit my reef tank for about 1 hour a day when I did my last rebuild.
All I got was tons of hair algae. Sunlight contains a lot of the red spectrum.
When I put up a shade to block the sunlight, in 3 months, all algae was gone.

I appreciate you sharing your experiences. I have two plant grow lights on the refugium & algae scrubber behind the wall that keep both nitrates & phosphates near 0 so I don't expect that to be an issue but I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[mtraylor]

This guy in California has tanks exclusively outside and a couple that start in the house and then are extended through the wall to outside. I thi k you may want to reach out to him for some pointers.



You can find allot of his videos

 

[pigmo]

in our experience, reflected or direct sunlight absolutely kills expensive acropora :mad: ;Clown :mad: ;Clown :mad: ;Bored

 

[R.Weller]

in our experience, reflected or direct sunlight absolutely kills expensive acropora :mad: ;Clown :mad: ;Clown :mad: ;Bored

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I surprised by that as there is no escaping sunlight in their native environments. I have continued this experiment for as long as I could but it's impossible to measure the effectiveness. We only have two small acros in the display, & while the one that has had the most exposure to reflected light is certainly growing the best, I would not attribute that to reflection alone. The last 30 days have been rather unfavorable for morning light, & tree leaves are now also blocking much of our morning sunlight. If I can find a way to measure results more accurately, I'll share here.

 

[Bpb]

I shade my tank from the sunlight as much as possible. Last time I was on vacation the pet sitter opened the curtains the whole time, I came home to a tank of brown corals, it took over a month for them to return to their fluorescent hues I was used to. Too much zoo production.
I don’t use any lights in my house other than the tank lights to also avoid having less vibrant corals. The kitchen lights are the only exception and I use 10k bulbs and I only turn them on if the tank lights are on.
So no, I wouldn’t recommend what you are planning on doing, unless you are trying to grow out corals very quickly and don’t care about their color for resale to wholesalers, similar to an outdoor aquaculture setup.

Of course then you have Adam at Battlecorals who uses predominantly 6500k metal halides, 6500k t5ho bulbs and on his leds runs his white red and green channels are 100% and manages to grow some of the most vibrant sps corals in the hobby