Sunlight & Heat how to control?

[sfsuphysics]

My experiments with my sunlit frag tank (10g) on my porch that gets fairly diffuse sunlight (thick fiberglass, not completely transparent, panels) which is hooked to my 100g system has not gone fairly well.

Issues I've come across
HEAT, I'm unsure if it's the sunlight or the enclosed space but I was fairly surprised that 10g hooked to 10x the volume inside a room that is fairly cool all the time (no direct light) managed to raise the temperature 3-4 degrees Celsius

Algae: I wanted it to be a grow out tank, and my clams love the light, but algae seems to dominate things if I let it go for more than a week.

So those who have have tanks or even green house growouts how do you deal with these issues?

Heat, do you simply hook to a controller that's hooked to fans that turn on if it gets too hot? I thought about more volume inside but don't know if this will do it.

Algae: DO you simply run nutrient poor systems? Or is it a necessary evil you need to continue to pick. Corals need food, Clams need food, light isn't enough, so how do you deal with it?

 

[sfsuphysics]

I should add, the reason I want to know this is I really want to hook up a 100g pond liner to do the same thing. However the liner is black (absorb heat!) and I'm worried I'll cook things.

 

[MCsaxmaster]

Can you increase the rate of flow-through through the little tank?

As for algae, there are two keys: 1) low nutrients, and 2) strong herbivory. On most reefs in nature it is the herbivory, and not nutrient availability, that keeps algae from taking over. That is something to keep in mind.

I'd somehow color a black pond liner white or light colored. A black pond liner in sunlight could be quite problematic (though it really depends).

cj

 

[sfsuphysics]

How would increased flow do anything? Just curious, because the flow does go back into the 100g tank and it heats the whole system up, not just the tank.

I have thought about painting the inside of the liner white, but don't know of any "reef safe" *laugh* paints that would be suitable. That or I even thought about covering with mylar or glue/sand (faux-sandbed style).

Yeah, figured herbivores would be the key, for my 10g that's impossible. Maybe with a larger area it would be quite a bit more feasible. I am looking into not having it hooked up to my display though, I think there's too many swings to worry about for it.

 

[rustybucket145]

Yeah, figured herbivores would be the key, for my 10g that's impossible.

10g too big for snails and hermits...?

 

[sfsuphysics]

In my experience, snails and hermits really are not very capable of taking out the more fibrous algae. I know some will say "snail X will chew through algae like a lawnmower" but I've never found one that truly did that. Turbo, Trochus, Asterina, Cerith, and even hermit crabs have been.. meh.. at best.

 

[Lordhelmet]

Sea urchin. I have had good luck with them eating everything

 

[sfsuphysics]

Any particular kind of Urchin? I know they'll pretty much knock everything over as well. My only experience with urchins have been tuxedo, and the ones I have have been alive for easily over year so it's eating something, but what it's consuming I can't say for sure. And they're in my displays not in my "growout" areas.

 

[dots]

Your heat problem is caused by both the ambient temperature in the room, humidity not alowing evaporation, (most sunrooms I have been in have had more humidity on average, which cuts down on the effectiveness of your evaporative cooling), and the direct sunlight, combined with the small volume of water.

Or in simpler terms, heat transfer by: conduction, convection, and radiation.

If your tank system within the main house is not over heating or is connected to a chiller, the system could most likely take up the heat generated in the sunroom. Because, it is only a 10g that isn't a large volume compared to the 100g, so it should be absorbed without any problem.

As stated, if you increase the flow, the two parts of the system will equalize and the heat will be pulled into the low temp resevoir and absorbed......hopefully without much change if the amount of heat isn't that much.....which it just may be. Right now, the water builds up heat as it is waiting to return to the system.

You could grow some chaeto in a portion of it or in the other tank and have it pull out the nutrients first to out compete the other algae....as well, because of the increased heat, light to grow, and food....you will have more algae here and will need a greater clean up crew/gallon than your other main tank.

 

[dreamreefer]

if you have your 10 gal in the ground, that'll be much better, for dirt is latent to heat , takes longer to heat up and cool down, so the cycles could be reversed in a +ve way., ie cooler temp for your tank in the day and warmer for the nite. as for direct sunlight, extremely diificult to prevent algae even with great cleanup crew. you can use some commercial "shade-cloths" for plant growouts, like those they use in orchards...there are different grades too. I've seen outdoor coral farms in SE Asia using just that and still get incredible sps colors, no chillers too...might be worth thinking about.