Natural Light

[patchy]

I'm thinking about adding natural light to my system by way of skylight. Has anyone had any experience with using sunlight as a source of lighting for a reef aquarium. The skylight would be a sun tube which allows the light source to be directed into the aquarium. Thanks for any help.

 

[wingnut]

HI
i dont think it would work unless the suntube fallowd the sun or if it would even be bright enough and the alge growth would be hell

 

[shadow678]

Natural light would not be a good idea, as there is too much red spectrum light, which would cause a very large algae problem. I have installed the tubular skylights you have mentioned, and love them for lighting a house, but you want to keep as much natural light away from your tank as possible. If the skylight is only intended for the tank, use the money to upgrade your lights instead.

 

[bang guy]

I'm going to buck the common perception that Natural light is bad.
The only problem I can predict is heat. If you can easily keep the tank cool then there is no better light than natural sunlight. If your solar tube does not filter UV you might need a thin piece of glass covering the tube. Most SPS have built in UV protection, but many other corals can't handle a lot (the ones usually found in deeper water).
Sunlight may cause a temporary algae bloom as everything adjusts to the new spectrum but long-term algae problems are caused by excess nutrients, not light spectrum IMO.

 

[rhomer]

I have to agree with Bang Guy on this one. These corals are raised in natural sunlight. I read an article recently about a guy that built a sunroom with a tank that ran the length of the room, he had skylights above the entire tank, and it was very clean. He only supplimented with a couple of 400watt metal halides.
If I ever get the chance to build a large tank, I figured I would save a ton of money and install solar tubes.
Rob

 

[shadow678]

Remember also that there IS a lot of algae in the wild, but there is also a strong current and lots of herbivores, some of which cannot be housed in aquariums, to deal with the problem. If you get an incredible algae cleanup crew and perhaps a refugium with some good macros to help reduce the micros, then you may be ok. You could always try it and see, but I know from experience those tubular skylights are permanent install as you cut a hole in your roof to install it, so if this doesn't work with your tank, be prepared to move your tank to a new location.

 

[rhomer]

A much easier solution would be to put a cover over the tube. A tank move is a PIA.
Rob

 

[brianf01]

I grew some good mushroom polyps from natural sunlight that woud shine directly on the tank about 6 hours a day, it was great, but come summer time the temp would rise up to 86+ so I had to shut the blinds. You might need a chiller if you are going to do it.

 

[glazer]

True sunlight is a wide spectrum light... buuuut sunlight is usually rated at a 4700 to 5500K. We all go to great, not to mention expensive, lengths to provide lighting in our tanks that simulate the light spectrum on a typical reef. By typical I mean the predominant color spectrum of sunlight at a depth of six feet or deeper or whatever!....lol Basically the color of light the corals are accustomed to. Almost none of us have a tank say deeper than 3 feet. Where does the filtering effect of the seawater come into play then. As shadow pointed out there is TONS of algae, good and bad on a natural reef.... but nature provides the means to keep things in check... we are just rookies at best at it. We all try to duplicate a natural reef but IMO we barely even come close, in fact I think it is a miracle that we can enjoy the variety of life we do in our little tanks.
All that being said.... if I said I found a great deal, cheaper than you can believe on a light setup, is wide spectrum lighting with extreme intensity, great PAR...yadda yadda yadda, should I go with it? Says the color temp is 5500K.... all of you, or the vast majority of you would say, forget about it... that is useless for reefs, you will have bad algae problems, your corals won't flourish and so on. And here I WAS talking about the sun!....lol
( gawd that was a long way to go to get to the point.... IMO, I would NOT go with natural sunlight,hehehe)

 

[blennybabe]

I was recently at a friends house. I asked to use the bathroom and their guest one was clogged so i had to use one at the other end of the house. I passed by this sunroom with a 46 bow front salt tank. it was the ugliest tank i have ever seen. only three fish in the entire thing. with the exception of a huge mushroom, there was nothing on the liverock except brown algae. I dont think they were trying to get rid of the algae because it was getting to be pretty thick on the glass. this all happened cause of the sunlight. There was a picture on the wall of the tank before they moved it into their new sun room, and it was beautiful. hope this helps you on your decision. IMO the natural sunlight isnt beneficial. the corals only use the longet wavelenths so why add those that help algae grow?

 

[bang guy]

Originally posted by BlennyBabe
the corals only use the longet wavelenths so

All of the recent literature I've seen indicate that Zooxanthellae are able to use all light in the visible spectrum.
The tank with the algae is neglected, it would still be neglected without the sunlight. I don't see the connection between the sunlight and the algae on the glass.

 

[rhomer]

From what I understand on this thread, is that if someone would like to use natural sunlight, they would need a much more diverse clean up crew, and in all likelyhood clean the glass more frequently. When I talk about natural sunlight, I don't mean having your tank next to a window. I mean USING the sun as the primary lighting source. Plan the tank around using the natural sunlight with solar tubes or other overhead lighting options. I would also suppliment with some actinic lighting.
This would be a much cheaper solution, with the greatest lighting intensity available.

 

[ironreef]

Sunlight isn't bad but the heat would/could cause problems. But if trying to use without light it's probally not enough unless you live in a hot climate. You get alga in all tanks but ime it always took @2years for my tanks not to grow alga on the glass or LR. I always had blooms ect.....Just took time for the tanks to settle even with using all the high tech stuff

 

[slowest is fastest]

I believe natural sunlight can be an alternative.
Some wholesalers and hobbiests alike cure rock in full sunlight either outside or in a greenhouse. Several propagation outfits use the greenhouse/natural sunlight combination for their grow out tanks.
If I were to use a skylight I would consider using a light filtering material either directly above the tank or covering the skylight. By doing so you would eliminate (or greatly reduce) the red light penatration(not debating whether or not that is necessary) and still allow the other "wavelenghts" through (as eluded to earlier). I also agree that most skylights by design can not take full advantage of natural sunlight because they can not constantly match movement as the Earth rotates. Without some sort of wide mouthed reflective inlet on the skylight I think a photo period of suffcient intensity would be relatively short.
While heat is always an issue, using natural sunlight will probably not present more of a problem then MH and the same preventative measures could be taken. ie fans for evaporative cooling if needed, chiller etc. The ambient tempature of the room will also factor in.
All of the recent literature I've seen indicate that Zooxanthellae are able to use all light in the visible spectrum.
I would appreciate it if you could point me to the references(I always enjoy new reading ) as I was under the impression that there were differnet kinds of Zooxanthellae that could use "all light in the visible spectrum" but I was not aware that any one Zooxanthellae could. Since our aquariums only include a small fraction of the Zooxanthellae present in the ocean this may indeed play a factor. No offense meant , no harm intended.
While I think natural sunlight has its applications I have no intention of switching off my ballasts any time soon

 

[jonthefb]

i know that dr. bruce calson, past director of the waikiki aquarium had a sps tank set up outside, and it did very well. however, up here in good old colorado, so far away from the friggin sun (all summer its hotter than hell, and the last 5 days its been cloudy and raining cas and dogs. i dont get it) i think that it would be much harder to set up a tank using sunlight as the only light source, just because the light intensity is so weak up here. bang, i too am interested in reading about the zooxanthellae, and light wavelengths. any info on where to find this?
jon