Natural Sunlight in tanks

Joe5688

Joe5688

Active member
whats ur thoughts on this? I get a little sun in the morning (see picture) I dont notice any more algae then the parts that dont get the sun. Is it beneficial? Whats more natural then the sun? lol

It's minimal sunlight. Like less then probably an hour or 2

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I once saw a tank on Reef2Reef that had reflectors in the ceiling to redirect sunlight into the tank. Very cool concept, and looked good. Not sure how it went after time, but it definitely seemed cool, as long as you could keep the sunlight from heating the tank, I think that is the main downside.
 
I saw that too. Guy eventually changed his mind from "these are awesome" to "do not get these"

I guess the guy had problems with dust/salt creeping into the sun tubes and getting onto the reflective tube. Killed par by more then 1/2 if i remember. He was having to warranty them out after a few years cause cleaning wouldn't help
 
In my experience long term sun exposure fuels severe algae growth...not just a little. Like I said earlier, I have a cardboard "wall" I put up around my nuvo at night so the AM sun can't blast it. Mind you, the windows are at least 20ft away from the tank.
Besides the obvious algae downside, I've never noticed an upside to natural sunlight. My corals respond the same to the full spectrum bulb I'm using and it doesn't contribute to nearly as much algae growth. Just my friendly opinion/experience.
 
I have 1 of my reef tanks in a corner SE exposure, with sunlight coming from 2 windows in that corner. Had HUGE algae problems when 1st set up. 3-4 different species. Pulled it all out by hand, added a huge abalone snail & a baby foxface & not a speck of algae in there a year later.
 
I never had hair algae issues from it but algae grows on my glass faster. I try keep sun light out my tank. Jmo
 
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