natural light???

Hey guys I was thinking about putting a tank right near a window and letting the sun light the tank and add some blue actinics to make it a more apealing spectrum.aside from possible algae issues can I grow coral and or keep an anemone using sunlight? Thaks for the input

 

I don't think just using a window will work. I have seen people using solar tubes, it helps to concentrate the light. But someone with more natural lighting experience should be able to chime in.

 

Sometimes can help some, but it's not direct light for much of the day. I wouldn't count on in removing the necessity of other lighting. If you have a low nutrient system, it shouldn't drive algae, but if your parameters slip, the yellow-red light can be more likely to drive an algae outbreak.

 

That will not work.

The Solatubes use DIRECT, focused sunlight.

Any window is going to shift the spectrum of the light transmitted through it in the red direction - this is bad news for corals who do not do well at the lower CCT associated with filtered sunlight through windows. Double-paned glass windows are twice as bad. The thicker your tank glass is, the worse. You will only be able to get 3-5 hours of direct light at best depending on both your latitude and specific geographic location i.e. are there trees? Mountains? Buildings? that might block indecent lighting?

Trust me - if that giant ball of gas could be used easily to help cut down my electric bill and help my corals grow - I'd be doing it.

There is a good reason people supplement their own lighting. Our aim in this hobby is the control nearly every parameter of the system to keep it as stable as possible. Relying on the sun would be going against that principal. Even tanks that have solatubes often use or need artificial lighting to be used in conjunction with the natural light (which again is unfiltered through glass panes leaving most of the original sunlight's intensity and CCT.)

 

The particular window it would be going in recieves a good portionn of direct sunlight each day.I wouldn't be able to use the fiberoptics where the tank would be gowing.it is a very small tank params are stable rock and sand came out of a 15 year old tank the tank itself has been running strong for 5 months give or take. No algea issues yet.

So no chance of a anemone?not meaning now of coarse but im tryinng to plan ahead

 

Running out of ways to say "no" . . . .

 

Solatube Daylighting System and Tubular Daylighting Devices for residential or commercial daylighting and sunlighting needs are the smart, green and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional skylights

something like that will work. But is likely more expensive (and if you are renting not an option) than using artificial light - even in the long run especially if you run the numbers against LEDs on say a 5 year period.

However, it does seem the Solatubes would work well.

Ask yourself this or ask any member on this forum if they use or know someone who uses natural light filtered through windows and DT panes instead of MH, CF, T5s or LEDs . .. .

My best guess is that very few to zero of them will be using this method, again, for good reason.

 

Was that 15 year old tank using sunlight? You stand a good chance of ruining your setup with nuisance algae with this method - even if you have "no algae issues yet . . ."

And by "good portion" how many hours are we talking about? Do you know it's approximate orientation? If it is anything but directly south facing, you will not get enough light by sunlight alone to support a nem.

You might get away with some soft corals and obviously NPS but that is only if your nuisance algae does not take over the tank first . . .

 

I should add the tak is a fluval chi tank with a canister filter added there's about 90gph and ill be modding it with cree leds not sure hoow many and what wattage yet

 

Those tanks are pretty sweet!! LEDs would rock that bad boy!!!