Anyone tried solar tubes?

[Eight]

Wondering if anyone out there has tried Solar Tubes as supplemental lighting. I'm going halides for the main lights, but was thinking that maybe instead of T5s for supplement, maybe I could give a solar tube a shot. The goal is to just have the tank viewable during daylight hours... growth and primary display would still be driven by the halides.

FYI, I am thinking about using the solartube in place of the third halide in my 6' inwall tank build. Tank is going in the garage, so dropping a tube in there would be a piece of cake... especially since I am also reroofing the house.

 

[sfsuphysics]

thought about, still thinking about it, but not ready to pull the trigger, besides them suckers are expensive, and San Francisco isn't exactly sun friendly

 

[Eight]

Yeah, they seem a little pricey. I'm in San Jose, which is a decent amount sunnier than SF... hmm....

 

[GreshamH]

FWIW actual sunlight on a closed system typically produces brown corals They guys I know that grow in GH's all color up their corals under lights prior to selling.

 

[Elite]

Check out this thread man.. very cool
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1563053

 

[ModernReefKeeper]

[quote author=GreshamH link=topic=6411.msg82059#msg82059 date=1234916349]
FWIW actual sunlight on a closed system typically produces brown corals They guys I know that grow in GH's all color up their corals under lights prior to selling.
[/quote]

Ive herd directly from ORA only uses sunlight now, no supplemental mh at all anymore.
I directly asked, as I wanted to make sure not to shock them.

 

[Gomer]

The difference may be that ORA's system isn't closed the ways ours is (wrt water)

 

[sfsuphysics]

Blasting corals with Sun all hours might be the problem, however due to the limited way solar tubes work, maybe not so much of an issue, although the thread starter over at RC had issues since he got zapped by AEFW or something and lost his corals.