sun light

[Gman]

I did FW for years and direct sun light hitting the tank for any length of time was bad. Algea like crazy. I decide to do SW, look all over the internet for info talk to lfs personel and hear that direct sun light is bad for SW too. Then i'm doing some research on reef central and the guy with the "tank of the month" talks about how he is lucky enough to get direct sunlight on his tank to help with lighting. me so confused. I'm just starting my reef tank and don't have all the lighting I want yet, but there are some critters and corals growing on the live rock and I don't know if opening the blinds in front of the tank will help them or just turn my water green. Heck if sun light is ok I wont need half the lights I thought I did, probly wishfull thinking; oh well

 

[ste2k3]

direct sunlight can be good or bad depending on the type of filtration you have. if you have a large powerfull filter and you use a phosphate remover from day 1, then sunlight can be good. if you don't, then i woulddn't recamend it. there is a 5' reef tank in the window which gets direct sunlight all day and has no algae problems. the problem with having light coming through the front pane is that you loose the effect. natural daylight comming through the top of the aquarium is ok, like I say, as long a s you have the filter to cope with iit.

 

[Gman]

So what you are saying is that light coming through the glass loses it's intensity? It would still be brighter than normal output floresent tubes wouldn't it? And won't a phosphate remover slow the growth of coraline algea and stuff like that or do they grow differently than normal algea. My guy down at the lfs said a good protien skimmer is going to help alot with algea I don't have one yet but I"m getting the aqua c remora , did a search on reef central sounds like people are pretty happy with that one.Cheap to.

 

[superman]

I would think that direct sunlight on a marine tank would be great for your coraline algae growth and for many corals. Why else would incredibly bright halide bulbs and compact fluourescents be used by everyone in the trade? To get closer to true daylight!!

 

[ste2k3]

calcariouse algae (corraline algae) which its name suggests is calcarious meaning that it uses calcium out ofthe water to form a skeleton. if normal green hair or slime algae were to die, it would probably rot down to nothing. if calcarius algae were to die, you would be left with a rock like skeleton. you need t treat coraline algae more like a hard coral rather than an algae and so..

you will need 0 phosphates for good growth. any phosphate wil restrict growth rates.

 

[Gman]

Good stuff. thanks for the info . I will start checking the calcium and suplement as needed. Those darn hermit crabs of mine eat more of the corraline algea than the brown and green gunk I want them to. I'll wait for my skimmer and then I'm going to "let the sun shine in" and see what happens. Like I said I'm not to far into my set up so if somthing goes wrong it wont be a huge deal.