500g Plywood/Glass Build external C2C with Solar Tubes

[Saltydrip]

I did a 15'x6'x3.5' bass pond in my basement.

All the wood material was sealed in a poly based resin and got at least one ply of fiberglass. The basin its self was done with concrete block and sealed with ryno liner. Not the truck bed stuff but the original chemical sealant for inside chemical and potable water containers. I'm not sure how it would hold up against UV but I doubt salt would harm it. As a UV shield you could put a top coat of automotive or marine clear coat on top. Lots of money for all that but it would do the trick.

[Saltydrip]

Now that I think of it.. A marine gel coat would be extreemly UV and salt resistant. It's the surface coat on fiberglass boats. It's typically not that pricy compared to paints and other resins. It would also have enough flexibility to deal with the flex in your walls.

[ISMANU]

Originally Posted by Aquatron

I am doing a cryptic aka duplex/refugium myself looking forward to how it goes using natural filter feeder's area. I know a macro algae refugium works been using them for year's.
I like your design and size...great looking build!
You want to get really Krazy install a upflow ATS on one of the walls between them doesn't have to be very large

Not trying to TJ but does anyone have any plans on how to do a UAS I have seen them mentioned in a few places but haven't found anything on how to build one

[Lavoisier]

Originally Posted by Aquatron

I am doing a cryptic aka duplex/refugium myself looking forward to how it goes using natural filter feeder's area. I know a macro algae refugium works been using them for year's.
I like your design and size...great looking build!
You want to get really Krazy install a upflow ATS on one of the walls between them doesn't have to be very large

I am leaning toward half cryptic for the filter feeder aspect. I had an interesting set of circumstances that occurred in my 90g. I experienced an aiptasia outbreak that I neglected until they dominated my tank. I introduced 2 nudibranches and a Copperband and eliminated the aiptasia (filter feeders) and then experienced a diatom explosion! I think the aiptasia, ugly as they are, effectively reduced my excess nutrients. I know they can be controlled biologically with copperbands (one of my favorite fish) and nudis so I will give them a try in my cryptic.

[Lavoisier]

Originally Posted by SantaMonica

Yes I'd like to see a UAS scrubber installed in there too

SantaMonica, I have at several times in my aquatic experience contemplated an ATS and I love the concept. The ongoing maintenance (as little as it is) has kept me from pulling the trigger. As it is this build will stretch me thin with maintenance so as much as I respect and admire the feature I will hold off for now on including it.

Originally Posted by Saltydrip

I did a 15'x6'x3.5' bass pond in my basement.

All the wood material was sealed in a poly based resin and got at least one ply of fiberglass. The basin its self was done with concrete block and sealed with ryno liner. Not the truck bed stuff but the original chemical sealant for inside chemical and potable water containers. I'm not sure how it would hold up against UV but I doubt salt would harm it. As a UV shield you could put a top coat of automotive or marine clear coat on top. Lots of money for all that but it would do the trick.
Now that I think of it.. A marine gel coat would be extreemly UV and salt resistant. It's the surface coat on fiberglass boats. It's typically not that pricy compared to paints and other resins. It would also have enough flexibility to deal with the flex in your walls.

Salty, interesting build. Did you use glass for viewing or all from the top? The liquid plastic I am using requires a waterbased product to adhere to it so my UV protection will come with the use of a latex acrylic coating that is fairly common today--both Krylon and Miniwax market it.

Originally Posted by ISMANU

Not trying to TJ but does anyone have any plans on how to do a UAS I have seen them mentioned in a few places but haven't found anything on how to build one

Ismanu, not at all. I'm interested in the link as well...always have things to learn.

[karimwassef]

Did you collect PAR readings?

[Lavoisier]

Originally Posted by karimwassef

Did you collect PAR readings?

I just yesterday ordered my Apogee sensor (SQ-120: Electric Calibration Quantum Sensor) and Digital Multimeter (a DT830B) so I'm hoping to have them by Saturday and take some initial readings at what will the water surface and what will be the bottom of the tank.

[jag10016]

Very smart that you used the self leveling cement good idea!

[Luckless]

Have you considered using a wider collector for your solar tube? You can pump a surprising amount of light through a very small reflector pipe, and then use a defuser to spread it out more.

Seen that used once in a bunker system to bring natural light down. 1/4 inch reflective pipe lighting a ceiling of a basketball court + seating area. You do have to be careful and not go over board with it, as you still have a fair bit of heat to deal with if you concentrate it too much.

Can be a good option if you find you are not getting as much light as you want, especially in northern location where we naturally get less light than southern latitudes you're trying to recreate.

Another good option is to add a Diaphragm/Iris on your collecting end, that way you can stop it down and let a little less light in during the summers, then open it back up again as fall rolls around.

[Lavoisier]

Originally Posted by jag10016

Very smart that you used the self leveling cement good idea!

Thanks, Jag. I do like the finished product. However, if I were to do it again with such a large area I could have done it cheaper with several bags of regular cement and a final bag or two of self-leveling.

Originally Posted by Luckless

Have you considered using a wider collector for your solar tube? You can pump a surprising amount of light through a very small reflector pipe, and then use a defuser to spread it out more.

Seen that used once in a bunker system to bring natural light down. 1/4 inch reflective pipe lighting a ceiling of a basketball court + seating area. You do have to be careful and not go over board with it, as you still have a fair bit of heat to deal with if you concentrate it too much.

Luckless, that is an intriguing idea. I am a novice at this approach to lighting, do you have any more information or links to wider solar collectors?

Kind Regards.

[Saltydrip]

We put 2 2ft round windows in the side so you could look in. They were 1" lexan pieces a friend donated to the build.

We stocked it with the typical PA farm pond inhabitants. Filtration and flow was done via an old pool setup we ended up with after filling in an old pool on a landscape job. It was up and running about a year befor we started finding humidity issues in the exposed lumber above it. The hole think only cost me about a grand but it was low temp low light freshwater.

[lowbudget]

do you have to run any filters when using the solar tubes? i know some people running outdoor systems then have filters over their tanks

[Lavoisier]

I have seen one thread where the OP used a type of blue mesh filter to gain a higher Kelvin (color) of light. Such a filter may well be necessary for me as well. My first task is to insure that my "irregular" tube design will provide adequate PAR for my tank (I hope to start assessing this weekend) and then the issue of color will need to be tackled.

[lowbudget]

my concern is not the kelvin, but with the sun being so bright might have to tone it down or filter out some of the red spectrum????

[Lavoisier]

Originally Posted by lowbudget

my concern is not the kelvin, but with the sun being so bright might have to tone it down or filter out some of the red spectrum????

Yes, I see your point. I have only looked at 3 or 4 solar tube set ups to date and heat had not been a problem. I'll have to wait and see if my system does produce too much heat. The blue filters do reduce the reds and yellows in natural sunlight so I would be able to use those filters to reduce the red spectrum.

[Lavoisier]

Originally Posted by Centralcampus

Looks great! Glad to be able to follow you in this journey!

Thanks Central for following along.

[karimwassef]

Can you measure any temperature rise at the tube outputs?

[lowbudget]

thanks im following cause i plan on doing this after the winter in socal.

[Lavoisier]

Originally Posted by karimwassef

Can you measure any temperature rise at the tube outputs?

No heat from the tube!

[muttley000]

Following your build as I plan a plywood project in the future. Have you made a decision on the bracing yet?

Also glad to be aware of the larger collector on the solar tube, a useful idea as I am north of where I would have guessed these were really useful.

[Lavoisier]

I posted this on the lighting forum but wanted to put it here for possible help as well.

I cannot get a reading from my new par meter setup. I will call Apogee but in the meantime if I am doing something obviously wrong I would appreciate the correction.

The multimeter is the 83 series (40508) digital. The sensor is SQ-120. I will get brief random readings when I turn the meter to 200m but then it goes to 00.0 or 00.1 under any light at all (including natural sunlight).

Any help?

[Luckless]

Before going much farther toward pulling your hair out, have you confirmed your multimeter is actually working?

As for solar collectors for solar tubes, I'm actually kind of surprised I'm not seeing much about them in general commercial offerings. All the ones I've seen were custom designed for their application, as none of the systems were off the shelf commercial.

I would have to sit down and do some ray tracing to figure out what would be the most effective shapes to use that would be easy to build at home. Polishing a large lens likely isn't the easiest thing for a lot of people to do, but a crude reflector should do the job nicely. The good thing is for an application like this is that we don't really have to worry about how the light is shaped, as you're likely going to want to defuse it anyway, not capture a crystal clear image. (My other hobbies include things like optics, photography, and astronomy.)

[Lavoisier]

Originally Posted by Luckless

Before going much farther toward pulling your hair out, have you confirmed your multimeter is actually working?

As for solar collectors for solar tubes, I'm actually kind of surprised I'm not seeing much about them in general commercial offerings. All the ones I've seen were custom designed for their application, as none of the systems were off the shelf commercial.

I would have to sit down and do some ray tracing to figure out what would be the most effective shapes to use that would be easy to build at home. Polishing a large lens likely isn't the easiest thing for a lot of people to do, but a crude reflector should do the job nicely. The good thing is for an application like this is that we don't really have to worry about how the light is shaped, as you're likely going to want to defuse it anyway, not capture a crystal clear image. (My other hobbies include things like optics, photography, and astronomy.)

Luckless, yes, I was able to get an accurate measurement on a 9v battery so the meter seems to be working. Is it possible that an inexpensive meter will not "read" mV?

I can't wait to hear your thoughts on more effective ways to capture natural light from the perspective of your other hobbies. I've always found cross discipline thinking to be the most productive in coming up with new ways of thinking.

I still have not done a search on larger collectors but should have some time this week to look into that possibility as well.

[Lavoisier]

Spoke with Apogee and determined it was a faulty sensor. (By the way, in the picture the red lead is plugged into the resistance input rather than flow but I had just checked both sides to try any reading at all)

[Lavoisier]

I just realized I have the wrong size biscuits (10) for 3/4" ply. I need 0. However, never having done this before, I do not know how far apart to center this size. Do I cut them 3" edge to edge like a 10 or a shorter distance for more biscuits (adding glue surface)?

I could not find anything from my google search so thanks in advance. I am on my way to HD to exchange the biscuits and will ask there but I hope someone sees this post before I get back to confirm whatever I hear at HD.