aquarium lit by..... the sun?!

the house we are going to move into after its built is going to have a separate little shed for me to keep my tanks in and house filtration and such. there are two floors but it is not very large only about 150 square feet total. but on the top it is just going to be just one big sky light and that gave me an idea. would this be able to light a tank? the sun shines thru it about 10-12 hours out of the day. if i kept water in check would i still have major algae issues?

 

That's how my LFS does it. Works great, he gets great growth. u don't get the popping colours like you under bluer light.

 

yeah but i thik the blue led's look really unnatural, when do you see corals in the wild under bright bluish purple light? so anyways it can be done? does he keep sps?

 

Well you can't get more natural than sunlight. He does keep a lot of sps and also had some clams and nems.
You have to remember though that in the ocean, as the sunlight moves deeper,the light becomes more and more blue. Because the blue wave can penetrate the best. It's really up to the look you want, lots of people prefer the blue light with bright colors, but like you said that's not natural looking.

 

Sure it can be done...there are plenty of aquaculture setups in greenhouses...one of the coolest aquariums I ever saw was the outdoor tank at the Waikiki Aquarium...I've also seen some tanks lit by solartubes that are pretty cool...as mentioned the colors are not the same as what you see in most reef tanks...but are very comparable to a natural reef...personally I like something that is fairly natural but still brings out some color.

 

agreed I have a few buddys down here that have some low tide tanks that use the sun and get good results tha alge isnt all that bad either

 

i always thought that would make nusiance algae grow like crazy that why its recommended to establish your tank away from direct sunlight

 

it can and somewhat does because in deeper water the spectrum of light changes and alge dosent like that spectrum vs the shalower water spectrum if that makes any sense LOL

 

ORA and mote marine do it this way, you will gey more algae growth. The sun is actually so bright it will burn your corals, or that is what the president of ORA told me. Cover the open area with black netting, that is what was done at mote and ORA.

 

will the corals really bleach? the sun is natural for them tho?