growing corals in sun light

[freetareef]

hi
i was reading calfos book and he grows his corals in sunlight. i have just moved to a new place and have some windows that are in total light all day.
just wondering if some one has any experience with this as calfo had his in a green house. he said he had to restrick some of the light even in pennselvania (spelling). he had also acted like it was uncomparible also. Anything calfo says from experince is as good as gold as far as i'm concerned.

 

[OldFishMan]

Hello;

I have studied this to some degree. The only thing about Sun light is it is composed of light from the entire spectrum. Algae has been reported as a main reason for limiting strong sunlight and the water in the tank is very shallow so lifeforms are exposed to UV light at a much greater level than in the wild.

Filters that can reduce the Red spectrum, and block UV have shown great success.

I wish you luck and hope you keep us informed.

I put my tanks wherever there is room --- upsets the wife a bit
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"If this don't work, I can always change the water!"

"OFM"


Enjoy!

OFM

 

[dieden]

I have heard that it is good to use partial sunlight and partial aquarium lighting (act or MH) so the frags do not have as much of a shock when they get transferred into an non-sun lit tank.

 

[soyadrink]

algae likes sunlight too

 

[OldFishMan]

Hello;

Try some "titanium car window tint" on the tank or window glass. Blocks 98% of UV and blocks most of the reds if you get neutral gray.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one!"

"Dorothy -- Wizard of Oz"


Enjoy!f
OFM

 

[diverdick]

Don't forget about the heating potential of direct sunlight. It can easily raise aquarium temps too high.

 

[freetareef]

I am not to worried about algea as their is more then one component to their growth. i put the tank against the wall where i can open or shut the blinds and will get all day lite from the sun if i want. all the coral seem to be happy and my moon coral has regained its lost color from when the fans stoped working and the tank got too hot. i leave the blinds open at night and let the sun do the timing for me!!

 

[OldFishMan]

Hello;

Yeah, natural.

Why fight the natural flow of things!


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"If it broke down last month and you have not gotten around to repairing it, you may not

need it!"


Enjoy!

OFM

 

[quibrzif]

I'm keeping nano tanks near the southern window (Great Lakes area) for a little more than 2 yrs. Like it, corals, anemone and clams feel good too. What I noticed:

1. Overheating is a main concern. Even if it's freezing outside, in a clear winter day direct sun heats tank fast. Possible solutions: either all the time people in the house, who will watch for temperature rising and turn on the fan, either some kind of temperature controller, that may be costly.

2. Corals in direct sun have to have a good flow around them to prevent the local overheating in a lowest flow spot.

3. Tank near window will be exposed to the direct sun light likely for a 4-5 hrs maximum, than sunlight moves to lit the northern part of the house. Add a cloudy days, with no light worth to talk about at all.
Solution:
a) independent artificial lighting, that could be turned off during bright hours, and on - when sunlight is insufficient. The same problem: who will turn on-off and remove the lights from the top of the tank, so they will not block the sun.
b) sunroom farther South. Actually, not a choice, but who already has it...

4. Having sparsely fed tank in direct sunlight is OK, but if you, like me, have filter feeders there and bryopsis or turf algae hitchhiked there, it's a real problem. The food particles and detritus will set between the algae strands and will never be removed by filtration. Starving algae off and raising magnesium are not helping. But LPS tank with big brains, like scolymia, cynarina and lobos, is really good, even with basic filtration (as opposed to having 75g rated skimmer for 20g filter feeders tank, practically in the same place).

HTH

 

[Coral Ranch]

Hi

I have been keeping corals in natural sunlight for awhile now and most of them do exceptionally well.Especially the sps's. Mushrooms are one of the few exceptions. I use a 40% shadecloth over them starting in late May.In June I put a 20% shadecloth over all the rest of the corals except the acros. Algae isn't a problem unless I let nutrients get out of hand.

 

[freetareef]

thanks for the imput all!! it's been a little so i figured i'd chime in. i have a aclove in my kitchen with east and north facing window. i leave the blinds open at night so the sunup lights the tank first thing in the morning. the only bad i've got using this method is now that summer is almost here there has been some really warm days and i have to watch the temp on my tank. adding 4 computer fans seemed to keep it cool though so no biggie! my girlfriend and i both have our b-days in june so we're both gonna spend 500 bucks on each other.... i told her i wanted a chiller for my tank or a ca reactor and she just rolled her eyes...

 

[freetareef]

adding a sump next weekend so that should help with the cooling if i blow a huge 8" fan acrossed it. lots of options.

 

[jeffkeith_us]

Sunlight and Shade Cloth

In Calfo's book and the last time I was able to hear him talk about using the sun he warned us to use shade to keep the light level down. You must do that. Also in the 5 aquaria that I keep in full or partial sun heat is the only problem. See my post in the Mandarin larvae thread for my stocking lists. Temperature and algae growth will be the only two problems to consider. At times the aquarium chiller and the room AC are needed to work together.

 

[morgan]

i have seen mushrooms rics and rhodactus do exceptionaly well in sunlight

 

[busdriver]

GARF.org has green houses that grow coral...
check them out...

 

[Katchupoy]

this is a very interesting subject. I wish people can post pics too...

One thing that I can add to this topic is that you can use SunTuf polycarbonate glazing. It is a clear polycarb used for roofing that has very good UV blocking...

Used in this project... http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/MTD/MTD.htm

and here... http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/DHWPond/Proto3/SolarPondDHW.htm

 

[JasonD]

I am working on a greenhouse project right now.

I had two concerns with sunlight. Heat and too much light/wrong spectrum.

I was looking at a 50% ChromatiNet Blue shade cloth. It reduces the spectrum of red and far-red light and increases the blue light spectrum.

It is made by Polysack. I got the idea from raaden's reef farm thread on reef central. He report better color, growth rate, and reduced temperature.

 

[freetareef]

i just read that thread last night. good thread, i don't know how i'd handle a hurricane taking out my greenhouse man...

what he and a few others warned about was that that material stetched over time and became more like 30% after some time. but if your going the green house rought i'm shure you'll have a lux meter RIGHT?

update: i have a porcipilla (spelling) that had died during my move that has been in sunlight for a month now and i am very happy to report that it is about 20% healed. I mean this guy was black and hollow, i killed him. doing great and am counting more poylps every week! my rics are doing great and the frogspawn that has baby heads on it have doubled in the last few weeks.

keep on keepin on...