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| Okay, but with that handy dandy meter, I guess you will find out when winter rolls in. Is the skylight but a "hole" in the roof or is there a way to point the light tunnel at the sun or at the sun's arc? Chuck
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there are some pix in the build thread too if you can wade through it all but here is one.
i have a couple more of the reflective 4x8 sheets and have considered making a reflector on a pivoting axis that would be mounted to the roof. my wife said no way. the neighbors already think i'm nuts. that may have to wait until the next house. lol
the solar photovoltaic system is 10 Kw.
the skylight is angled with the 5:12 pitch of the roof and downslope faces SE.
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Carl
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| Hopefully the winter sun is on that side of the house, otherwise I doubt you will get much, if any sunlight. I am of course assuming you thought of that when it was installed. Not being able to add a pivoting mount may or may not require a bit of supplemental lighting during the darker days of winter. All in all, I am super impressed with what you have built, truly a dream come true, and one that I am sure we all have. That room is simply awesome and doubt I would ever leave it unless forced to... Chuck
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i will eventually have to leave the room if only to check on the sump in the garage below. that and get food for myself and the tank
the winter sun does concern me. but because of the direction the slope faces and the fact that we are on a small hill with no neighbors houses shading our roof at all it is the best it could be. i hope that is enough. people come over and want to know about night time viewing and will i have lights? i tell them not if i don't need to. i hand them a flashlight and tell them about all the interesting critters that only come out at night.
so maybe i will have lights that i run over the tank just in the winter time for 4 months, we shall see.
i wonder how i would tell if i wasn't getting enough light? didn't anthony Calfo and many others have greenhouses growing corals in much more northern latitudes than i? do they use supplemental lights?
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Carl
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| I'm not familiar with Anthony's greenhouse but have seen online photos of others that appear to have large MH units hanging over the tanks/tubs and assumed they were there to supplement when and if needed. With having your own PAR meter I guess in a few months you will find out if you need to supplement or not. If the readings do not drop drasticaly I would not bother with extra lights as any slight or moderate drop will be very gradual and something the corals can adapt to. They might brown up on ya a bit but I personaly could care less what color my corals are or become as long as they are healthy and growing. Chuck
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Eric-
any thoughts about my setup. so far all seems well.
on a recent very sunny day peak PAR values were off my Apogee meter. of course other parts of the tank were only 4-500 at that time.
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Carl
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I saved this post because I knew after reading what transpired in my absence it would take some time. I'm going to do this in a few installments now as I go back and cut and paste parts of previous posts.
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On your readings:
This appeared to be a perfect day and I agree with Chuck it seems very natural. This is a nice amount of clouds in the photo - very typical for tropics, too, although the azimuth may have dropped it a little and the photoperiod may be a little off, but overall perfectly acceptable. I'd do this a few more times on various days with different cloud covers, clear skies, rainshowers, and periodically over the year for seasonal changes. You will really know what light is like then. Looks great so far. I would also do this not just above the tank but outside so you see the changes based on having early and late lower levels becuase of the tunnel effect of the light. I just met a great person in South Africa who is doing something very similar with a new tank and will try to get him involved in this thread as I think all will benefit from the comparison and results over time.
left middle right
7am 22 22 22
8am 148-160 44 44
9am 56 125 375-410
10am 80 130 160
11am 240-250 290-300 140
12pm 800-925 500-550 350-400
sun came out for a bit just after 12pm but was partially cloudy by 1pm again
1250-1400 800-850 600-700
1pm 90 550-650 1000-1100
2pm 100 250 800-900
3pm 200 150 70
4pm 95 105 65
5pm 60 80 65
6:30pm 15 15 15
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>>the last two feet of the shaft is open on three sides and a lot of light spills out. i like the access but think i should continue the reflective material down to the top of the tank.<<
I agree, unless you get too much heat.
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>>
i wonder if i can't just leave the three sides open that last two feet. i hate to waste the light though and it would hide the returns around the top of the tank that will go in when i have a sump.<<
I'd hate wasting it, too, and you should be able to control temps with fans - or a chiller - and heaters.
>>the sump should be able to help with the heat some. it will be a few hundred gallons in the garage wich is partly below grade,<<
good plan
>>i too am a bit concerned about acclimating corals to the temps and the higher light levels. i have had some of them lighten up after going in the tank. Monti caps, both green and orange that were 6" under a 400 watt halide turned pastel at first but have now started to get a bit darker now and are resumming growth. about 6 weeks in the new tank.<<
Sounds normal
>>what do you think about the swing in the temp of 4 degrees over the day? the 86 degrees was only with our recent near record temps for this early in the year. we will have temps this high again but not for a while. temps should be about 20 degrees less today. <<
4 F is fine and tolerable. 4 C not so good.
>>up until this past weekend the tank temps have only been running around 79-80. so that is a big jump suddenly over just a day or so. all looked well last night although it is still early here and i haven't looked in on them yet today. i do have a flashlight by the tank for after dark viewing.
how much daily variation can they take?<<
Normally, what you are experiencing is fine. Are temp swings normal? Yes in many areas. Are they stressful? Yes, to some degree but many will likely acclimate without issues.
>>i have a 2hp chiller on order and think i shoul | | | |