Natural Sunlight Nano

[Kalied20]

I posted this in my Reef Club forum here, but thought I would open it for discussion here too. I have started a 24 gallon JBJ nano with natural sunlight. Here's the link to the thread:

Link to thread

 

[kar93]

Nice work, The corals look great. Good idea using sunlight!

 

[seapug]

Natural sunlight is a great but if you are using windows on the walls to light it just be aware that the angle of the sun will change as the seasons progress. By the middle of the summer the sun will pass directly overhead so you will only get the direct light for a couple hours early or late in the day, depending on which direction they face.

 

[widmer]

Looks great. I think in the future more people might catch on, and use light-channeling devices to bring more (potentially filtered) sunlight into their tanks, particularly for the larger systems that would otherwise use a handful of metal halides. At least that's what nostradomus predicted...

 

[Kalied20]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12427090#post12427090 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seapug
Natural sunlight is a great but if you are using windows on the walls to light it just be aware that the angle of the sun will change as the seasons progress. By the middle of the summer the sun will pass directly overhead so you will only get the direct light for a couple hours early or late in the day, depending on which direction they face.

I did look at the seasons and the windows are southeast on the left side and southwest on the right. The corner of the house that the tank is in is almost directly South. I might lose some sunlight in late summer or fall in the afternoon.

I did however buy the light fixture to make sure that if needed I could put it up to suppliment during these times.

 

[Kalied20]

Update:

Been 8 days today....
The corals are looking great. The Orange Monti Cap has grown about 2 centimeters in the week. The new growth is very bright Orange. Different than the original piece.

Green polyp leather is expanding larger every day. I would say it was just smaller than a silver dollar before. Now it is a little bigger than the dollar.

All the zoanthids are fuller and more colorful than ever. I have a small frag of a bright nuclear looking greens. It had 4 polyps last week. Today it has five polyps and four more baby ones coming out. Tremendous growth.

The Blasto colony is fuller and bigger than it ever has been and I see a couple of new babies on the sides.

So far nothing but postive. There has been a little algea on the glass, but no more than I ever had on my other tanks.