Why not put a tank in direct sunlight?

[TylerS]

I've read in several locations that I shouldn't put a tank in direct sunlight, but then spend tons of money on special light fixtures to try to replicate the sun...

What am I missing? (besides temperature, which could be controlled. I'm just referring to light quality etc.).

 

[Vapour1ze]

My tank sits next to a window, I have a blind closed on that window pretty much all day. No algae issues.

 

[Sk8r]

Physics. If it were exposed to unbounced sunlight it would be one thing, but once it has bounced on its way to the tank, the light seems to favor, eg, cyanobacteria...which thrived when the Earth was a very unhappy planet, just after the Permian Extinction, when the smoggy atmosphere obscured the sun...

As a point of information, your bulbs burn 'down' rather than 'out,' so knowing when this happens, after how many hours, will be a good thing. Change them before they assist your tank into a post-Permian cyano breakout.

 

[Paul B]

Tanks in sunlight become covered in algae especially the glass that faces the sun and the opposite glass. Some LFSs have tanks like that and they end up moving them

 

[Stevenliu9]

Tanks in sunlight become covered in algae especially the glass that faces the sun and the opposite glass. Some LFSs have tanks like that and they end up moving them

Agreed, i have seen one in my lfs they had one right by the window facing south every afternoon sunlight hits that tanks. A month later the owner regreted for two reasons- algae explosion, and difficult to regulate temperature.

 

[ca1ore]

Plus, remember, that most of animals we would keep in our tanks receive light that has been filtered by many feet of water - thus the use of blue leaning spectra. Sunlight that falls on your tank has received no such filtering.

 

[Fibinotchi]

If your corals sit below 10 feet of water you would probably be ok. Not to mention the differences in light as it reflects off the wave surface. But straight into the side of a tank with no surface to break up the light and no water to filter out some of the spectrum, you get bad algae.

 

[Rob6311]

Also not to mention that in a house the sun would be unreliable, because is there any windows in your house that the sun shines into enough to cover your tank 100% for atleast 8 hrs a day?

 

[Ben34105]

I live in SW Florida and several times I've been in my LFS and someone has asked about putting their tank on the lanai.

My tank is positioned in a way the one short side gets indirect light in the afternoon from my sliding glass doors. The glass is always dirtier on that side.

 

[TylerS]

makes sense. Thanks for the replies.