sunlight good or bad?

[corbett_n]

I just moved and the only place I could put my 30g reef is near a sliding glass door. I can close the blinds, but when I open them in the morning sunlight shines directly on my tank. My corals even open up to catch all the light. My question is: is there any harm in letting sunlight hit my reef during morning until 5:00 PM when my lights come on.

[landlord]

I would watch for problem algae, possible increased heat, and depending on how long you keep the lights on at night, rising ph from an extra long photoperiod of daylight. Other than those minor and controllable issues I would enjoy the free light.

Just an Opinion --landlord

[mokeyz]

It's a good thing, your corals will thank you and it won't effect algae anymore than your tank lights will, that depends on nutrients in your system.

[Blown 346]

Sunlight is the best light you can give your tank. Nuisance algae is caused buy high phosphates, nitrate, etc. The algae has to have something to feed off of to survive. Sunlight wont give algae something to feed off of. If this were the case the ocean would be one big mess of algae.

If you get algae growth in the form of hair etc, you need to check phosphate, nitrate,levels. Look at how much you feed, how often and what types of food. Anything left over will just rot and cause an algae problem.

[jnguyen4007]

Originally posted by corbett_n
I just moved and the only place I could put my 30g reef is near a sliding glass door. I can close the blinds, but when I open them in the morning sunlight shines directly on my tank. My corals even open up to catch all the light. My question is: is there any harm in letting sunlight hit my reef during morning until 5:00 PM when my lights come on.

It's interesting that this came up because I just got through reading the lighting section from Anthony Calfo new book Coral Propagation. In the lighting section, he highly recommends that the tank to use natural lighting whenever possible. So if you can place your tank next to a window, sliding glass door or even under a skylight section of your home, do so. Anthony went on and said that algae problem tend to occur more with too much nutrient and other stuff in the water and that sunlight is the cause is unfounded. Everyone I have ever talk to in this hobby have always advised against natural sunlight. Anthony Calfo, being a leading expert in this field, said otherwise.

James

[landlord]

Let me clarify

If the sunlight hits your tank at 7:00 AM and you turn your lights on a 5:00 PM and run them till lets say 12:00 AM you will essentially have lights running for 17 hours. This plus the nutrients that are found in the vast majority of systems will cause, let's just say more than the normal amount of algae for that particular tank not placed against the window.

I was not trying to say that sunlight causes more algae than normal tank lights. Sorry for the confusion.

--landlord

[p4ck37p1mp]

I've seen several threads where people have done more than use a window for light, they installed Sola Tubes to direct sunlight directly into the tank via a reflective tube through the roof. I had a tank in another house under a skylight, it caused the corals and fish to wake up before my lights went on, never caused a problem.

[#15337690]

Our tank was in a room that had windows on both sides. The tank would get sunlight in the morning and evening. I didn't notice much in the fluctuation of temperature as the room temp of water is much cooler than it needs to be for a reef. It just meant that the heaters didn't have to kick on as often. But, the algea definetely became a problem. You'll be scraping more than you expect and you'll want to watch out for nuisance algea on the rockwork if it isn't covered with coralline. Also, make sure you are keeping your phosphates at zero. Otherwise, it doesn't matter how much you block the sunlight. You're going to get nuisance algea everywhere. good luck.

[discocarp]

Its a great thing as long as the tank isn't overheating.

[ccampo]

Yes, sun light is natural and "free", but yes, if nitrates and phosphates are high in your tank you'll see lots of algae, but the same would occur with T5s or MH, just keep your nitrates and phosphates low and save some $ from using natural sun light.
I read somewhere that there was a guy here in Florida with a reef tank in a sun roof porch with no artificial light and the corals were doing great.

[Landolakes]

I get sunlight for a few hours on either side of my tank and the corals that get hit by it have great growth. I do not have any algae issues either.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Works just fine on lighting my 400 G tank.

You can set your lights to come on at their normal times. The extra light from the sun will not hurt them. With the actual amount of light that reaches a true reef in the wild, the indirect sunlight and the output from your artifical lights will not reach that amount.

All you need to be aware of is the temp increas if it happens and as with any tank, keep the excess nutrients low to help curb alage growth.

My tank is situated to receive a southern exposure for the majority of the tank during the day. Because of this, I am only running 2 X 400W DE MH 14K hamilton bulbs on a light mover. I run my lights about 10 hours a day. Without the NSW, I would be running 4 of these bulbs for 14 hours a day.

[corbett_n]

Thanks for all the info, this really helped me out