Natural Sunlight

So after my last post concerning the lack of synthetic lighting, I have been impressed with my tanks health with having a fair amount of sunlight in addition to bulbs. I came across this great article that gives some readings of photosynthetically active radiation in terms of where in the tank and how much... (t5 + sun, t5 alone, MH + sun, MH alone)

How many of you 3reef's use any sunlight at all?


Photosynthetically Active Radiation

article by Adam Bludell: Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine - Lateral Lines: The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas


skip past the intro and read the PAR readings....

 

So nobody utilizes natural light???

 

Thank you for posting that link . Very interesting stuff. I had a lot of natural light on my tank when I first started , but just close my blinds now. Way too much algae.:-/

 

I purposefully located my tank in a place where direct sunlight could not hit it. I do not want an algae problem. And so far, I have been blessed. Everything I have read says to stick with traditional lighting.

 

Unless you have the proper glass in a hot House type deal then what sunlight you would get through a house window will cause light intensity and spectrum distortion and this can cause a problem . Light will be refracted and shifted to red and yellow wave lengths and cause a sever algae issue . The Guy who I manage a coral grow out system we built a 25 x50 hot house last Fall . I mentioned what I would happen with the wave lenghts of the light and it was a pure mess I have been told with algae until they got the proper glass panels on the roof and sides that direct sunlight comes through this spring sure happy I missed that party Never use natural sunlight Especially if the near by windows are doubled pane insulated as the Gases inside will really mess with wave length shifts . Now all that having been said what is growwn in a hot house under the natural sun are weak in coloration and they all have to be colored up under the proper M/H and Actinics. Its the same with corals grown out under the Old Iwakie's 65K M/H the just look brown and off color.

 

Tangster, sounds like an amazing shindig you have going on, feel free to most more info/pic of your projects pertaining to alternative lighting. Thanks for the post...

 

I don't do Photos I have them of our corals and such and I had a few of the light tubes on a semi cloudy day , The hot house is just a hothouse seen one you have seen them all just row's of 12 ft troughs for coral growing. I have never been much with a camera and to old to start now I just brought a nice one and found someone to use it LOL Told her it was for Xmas LOL When I get back to work I'll post some of the hothouse,

 

NVM, that was Joe Jaworski....

 

Nice...and I fell for it too I think I had some pictures of the hothouse but they were in the old hard drive in the laptop so they're long gone now

 

SURPRISE!!!!! ;D Lets bag it up LOL