natural sun bad for sps?
- Thread starter toothman
- Start date
Aqualund
New member
MammothReefer
Active member
You are kidding right, or are you just trolling at this point. You can't really be this dense. Yes he tints his tank in the summer and covers his tank. It's an out door propagation system. That is exposed to CONSTANT direct sunlight and the elements, he also supplements with halides. He has changed his system several times over the years. His old system was amazing at growing corals but they were all brown. (Sorry Steve). He's new setup works very nicely and he is getting great corals out of an outdoor system. So yes, he gets the MAJORITY of his light from the sun. What does that mean, your indoor system that maybe a couple hours a day gets some off slanted sunlight coming threw double pane glass and then how much more air before it hits your tank with all the shading from your house, the trees and whatever else is around is going to be JUST FINE.
If you are seeing algae blooms. Say thank you Mr Sun for helping my tank find away to deal with the nutrients that have been lurking in my tank. I can now harvest the algae and have a cleaner system. If you are worried about "hot spots" you don't have enough flow.
Aqualund
New member
My point is for the people saying that because one person somewhere had a natural sunlight system (without properly detailing the specifics of the system), than anyone anywhere can run a full natural sunlight system long term and be fine. This is a hasty generalization, and flat out untrue. There are away to many variables that need to be accounted for in order for that case to be true, and its a lot more complex than "there was a guy that had natural sun light in his tank and it looked great!" Thats my only point here 
MammothReefer
Active member
My point is for the people saying that because one person somewhere had a natural sunlight system (without properly detailing the specifics of the system), than anyone anywhere can run a full natural sunlight system long term and be fine. This is a hasty generalization, and flat out untrue. There are away to many variables that need to be accounted for in order for that case to be true, and its a lot more complex than "there was a guy that had natural sun light in his tank and it looked great!" Thats my only point here
Well next time read the thread. The guy is asking if having a open window shinning light at his tank is going to be a problem. The answer is NO. It will always be NO. I had .5 picos near windows if they can take it so can any "normal" sized or large system.
dvanacker
DID I SOUNDS SMRT??
My tank is right by a huge bay window that I open every day for my cactus and tropical plants.....lots of morning light...looks kinda cool and tank is healthy. Hawkins still kickin..
Can we forget this old wives tale. On my local board some still persist with this stuff but we should advance beyond this fallacy.
Can we forget this old wives tale. On my local board some still persist with this stuff but we should advance beyond this fallacy.
NatureNerd
New member
My tank gets an hour or two of sunlight every day. It too is in front of a huge bay window. If nutrients are high, algae does seem to grow faster but, my corals seem to look their best with the sunlight supplementing the artificial light.
Just watch for temp swings. My tank only goes up about 0.5 degrees with the sun. I imagine that more of a swing could do some damage.
Just watch for temp swings. My tank only goes up about 0.5 degrees with the sun. I imagine that more of a swing could do some damage.
Chrissypoo
New member
Anyone with experience have any thoughts?
GSMguy
New member
:headwally:
plyle02
Active member
NatureNerd
New member
Well, the tank has been getting fairly direct sunlight for a couple of hours every day for 16 years. That's pretty good experience.
NaClH20NMYVEIN
Red Dragons!
I have had 4 solar tubes over my tank for over the past year. While I dont currently get enough light to support SPS with the tubes alone the coral handle the natural light just fine. Colors are not as good on the corals with natural light but the fish look better IMO.
