Have you seen your tank under natural sunlight? (1 Viewer)

[jamesw]

If so - what did you think? Kind of ugly eh?

Well shoot - that's what the corals naturally look like. So why do they look so much better in the ocean?

Cheers
James

 

[d2mini]

When you see them in the ocean they are typically under deeper water than our tanks. The water filters certain rays from the sun, changing the color temp at those levels.

 

[angel4]

Don't they use high intensity color lighting for underwater video?

 

[jamesw]

Up on the surface in shallow water, the stony corals have awesome color - just under natural sunlight. I'll see if I can dig up some pix.

Maybe ours would look awesome under natural sunlight, but they are adapted to halides, so they look brown under sunlight???

Anyhow, I just got to thinking about it because they don't look very good under flash either...

Cheers
James

 

[lesd]

James, have you read this series of articles?:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2009/1/aafeature1

Gets very technical, but it is interesting stuff regarding coral coloration and lighting.

-- Les

 

[djreef]

Anyhow, I just got to thinking about it because they don't look very good under flash either...

Cheers
James

Unfortunately, alot of things don't look that good under flash.

DJ

 

[hank]

Some of mine look pretty good in sunlight, but I've wondered about adaptation too, and for softer corals the light filtration through different depths as well.

 

[hoffy02]

in the constant quest to do things cheaper... Lighting has been my latest "cheap" endeavor... Then I remembered this thread.. What I am curious about is whether or not they would look better under natural light(solar tube, etc) if that light was filtered in line to take out the lower Kelvin temps... OR, even easier, supplement the unfiltered natural light with Blue LED's... Obviously this would be much cheaper in startup and energy usage but would it work? has anyone tried this or seen a thread where someone has?

I have the perfect place to try it where i am doing my 120 in wall where I would get full light from sun up to sun down, but I dont want to "try" it my self and not get the same beautiful affects you guys get with all the artificial lighting... Besides, wouldnt the natural light be better for the corals?

 

[reeftopia]

Will be getting splar tubes intalled in 2 tanks next week. Do know when the evening sun is coming in one window my corals are loving it. I have read a number of articles on solar tubes. Here it browns your corals to start. I am going to try blocking the light for 2 hours in the middle of the day and gradually decreasing that time. If any one has advice on this would be glad to here imput. Sorry dont mean to hijack you here

 

[hoffy02]

awww man I really have to know how that goes Nanneta.. Do you plan on doing any filtering or supplemntal lighting?

 

[reeftopia]

Am running over a 100 t5s right now hope I can cut back trmendously just dont know for sure. really no mentors to help just working my way thru. planning on cutting my lighting in half to start, dont know where I will go from there.ome people run with no lighting, but I plan to view mine at least into the evening

 

[Reefaddict79]

guy on reefcentral did the solar tube thing and it worked well for him. Browned a little in the beginning as was mentioned but with some actinic supplementation colored right back up with a smaller electric bill

 

[RR-MAN]

Am running over a 100 t5s right now hope I can cut back trmendously just dont know for sure.

Can we see picture of 100 t5s because I have never seen that many on any tank?

 

[reeftopia]

actually 4 different tanks 1200 600 350 140. took most down this weekend as there suppose to be intalling the sola tubes. Will be trying to post pics of instalation and whats going on