Dynamic tank stand ideas needed.

[Grins]

I know the pipe lights are often used in homes to give light during daylight hours and that they look much like a recessed light fixture when installed. But I'm having a hard time imagining them producing the quality/intensity of light you'd need to support anything other than fish and macros.

 

[Sploke]

In a large tank they might be good enough to provide supplemental lighting, with a few spot halides or something for corals?

 

[snailrider]

kcress, yes depot, but lowes has even better ones--Solar makes the Skyview Skylight which has a much better top collector and better quality than the ones at depot.

The ones you posted about I think are sold at home depots in Utah.

I called my folks today and asked what kind they had, it is a SolaTube.

They paid $600 for the hardware 10 or more years ago and it still works excellent. At dusk, the halway is still lit up well, and it is hard to see outside.

Grins brings up a great point about the intensity. With the difuser inside they are designed to spread the light out throughout the room. A different difuser with a less angle would be benificial and could focus the light onto the tank. It may fry the fish though.

I'm thinking of the smaller tube light, then replacing the inside difuser with something else or maybe just clear glass. This then may give a stronger light source, probably even more than being in direct sun. Being at this lattitude the sun isn't as strong as the tropics so this could be good.

Yep it is on my Christmas list. If you own your home you can get credits from you local power company and I believe a tax break also. They are offering incentives for people to use these energy efficient items.

Spoke, something the retailers aren't telling you is that halides, actinics etc are still all artificial light. The light pipes collect sun rays and actually intensify them, then split it up with a difuser.

It is easier to sell a light that you can move with your tank, for renters etc. It is an easier sell with a high profit margin. It's like eating vitamins. You get your vitamins etc, but nature puts it together in a way organic creatures can utilize it.

Let me cite an occurance. In the evening the sun hits my tank in such a way I get the most vibrant full spectrum rainbow imaginable. I cannot describe the colors as vividly and brilliantly as they hit the floor and walls.

You show me any light that can generate that intense rainbow full spectrum. Will the pipe skylight generate that? I really don't know, but probably will. It is powered by the sun.

 

[kcress]

Thanks snailrider. I'll definitely check out Lowe's then. SolaTube was one of the first makers I think.

Yes I was always going to jettison the diffuser!! You are absolutely correct in that the light pipes are generally used to light up as large an area as possible which is certainly not what we need. Normally the diffuser is just the very end covering of the tube. I would probably use something like clear Plexiglas, etc.