Natural Sunlight tanks

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Charlie97L

Well-Known Member
Has anyone played around with having a naturally lit tank?

I know the Waikiki Aquarium has one, that's supplemented by MH. I've also seen a few on RC that were sunlit, i believe, and had amazing growth and stability.

i've also heard the major downside to these tanks is that often the frags/cuttings will not thrive in a normally (or traditionally) lit tank.

just kinda tossing out a discussion topic. it's a neat idea, and if i ever move to an area that gets more sun, i might consider it.

also, on that note, does anyone ever think about the noise our equipment produces (powerheads, pumps, overflows) and how that affects the animals?
 
mps9506

mps9506

Well-Known Member
Good topic.
I have no personal experience with naturally lit reef tanks. O2many on RC had a pretty cool setup, I recall he had issues with overheating and maintaining salinity. IMO the corals did not appear as colorful outside, but once moved inside under 20k lighting there color was stunning. Of course this was a result of being outside for so long.
Me and a buddy received some frags from him and had no issues with them staying alive. They didn't keep the same vibrant color, but that's another story.
 
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corallimorph

Has been struck by the ban stick
Greetings...i have outside ,flow-thgrough systems at work ,with varying degrees of shade cloth above them,all i have to do is add snails, Mithrax for Velonia outbreaks,Peppermint shrimp for Aiptasia.
Sound too good to be true....it is,...all of my animals do better indoor- in(CHILLED),closed system aquaria with MH+Florescent lighting,and synthetic sea salt.
I only use the outdoor raceways for corals that have settled on steel/rust,
(man-made structures).or have some other crazy invasive sponges or tunicates that must be removed before i bring them in.:thumbup: -Dave

The day after hurricane Willma i found one of my raceways a block away(it had broken loose from it's plumbing and floated like a boat)..and it still had a few peices of coral in it(some survived)
 
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corallimorph

Has been struck by the ban stick
I'm also in the process of building a system at home that has a 125 mangrove refugium(natural sunlight-just the refugium) but I'll have to let you know how that goes once i have it up and running.
 
mps9506

mps9506

Well-Known Member
How do you address heat issues Dave? Other than shade cloth or is that it?
I believe some folks have had indoor/outdoor systems to try and alleviate some heat problems (kind of like the outdoor fuge you are building). Would underground plumbing be a viable cooling solution?
 
aquaman3680

aquaman3680

Well-Known Member
There are major up and downsides to the whole naturally lit system. With it being naturally lit you will have a huge algae problems and it will be tough to control. You will also have a huge heat issue. You would be able to suppliment that with a chiller. Also when it is too cold your tank will get very cold. What would you do when it rains? snows? freezes?

If you would be able to solve all these issues i think that it would be a neat idea for a system. Let us know if you would want to do something like this as it would be an intresting tank.

Matt
 
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boozeman

Well-Known Member
corallimorph said:
I'm also in the process of building a system at home that has a 125 mangrove refugium(natural sunlight-just the refugium) but I'll have to let you know how that goes once i have it up and running.
Click to expand...
cool :thumbup: please post pics when you gety it running.


A product which I have given considerable thought is the solatube...which could be used to supplement a halide system with ''piped in'' natural light
 
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corallimorph

Has been struck by the ban stick
I NEVER have freezing / snow issues,or algae,(snails are a snorkel away for me and cost 0$)...HEAT IS THE KILLER.....summer the water temp can get over 85-87 degrees Fahrenheit.(even with a chiller)(air bounces above 100 around August-Sept)Really nice here today though:)(80)
Rain isn't an issue either(with my flow-through rate)-Dave
 
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corallimorph

Has been struck by the ban stick
Sorry Mike..didn't mean to be missleadding...i should have said 125 mangrove refugium(indoors )with 100% natural lighting(on the floor directly in front of sliding glass doors)-Dave
 
mps9506

mps9506

Well-Known Member
aquaman3680 said:
With it being naturally lit you will have a huge algae problems and it will be tough to control. You will also have a huge heat issue. You would be able to suppliment that with a chiller. Also when it is too cold your tank will get very cold. What would you do when it rains? snows? freezes?

Matt
Click to expand...

I don't think algae would be anymore of an issue than in a MH lit tank. Algae is always controllable with the proper herbivores and most importantly nutrient control. If one is lucky enough to have a flow through system as dave, then it is even less of an issue.
I don't think an outdoor system is a viable option at all in an area where is gets cold enough to snow or freeze. As far as rain I think most people that have any systems outdoors run shade cloths to help control temp and also block some rain. Keep in mind anything outside will need to be in an area that has fairly constant sunlight year round, pretty close to 12 hours a day year round, meaning you are limited to southern Florida and the southwest us if you are in the states.
A chiller seems like a very expensive way to cool a system like that. Can underground plumbing cool a setup like that sufficiently and less expensively?

Of course everything I've mentioned is for an outdoor system. One can do a naturally lit system indoors as well. The solatubes are an option for supplemental lighting as Boozeman posted. Flippin expensive though.
Coral Magazine about a year ago had an article about small aquarium lit by sunlight through the windows. It was pretty neat, of course the author used organisms with low light demand. Small anemones, polyps mushrooms and macroalgae. Pretty interesting tanks, not so much display tanks for the house but something for the aquarium geek to have fun with.

BTW, Dave, if you need a roommate to help scrub algae or make frags please call me :D
 
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Charlie97L

Well-Known Member
haha i should have been more clear.

i was talking about the solatubes. those don't generate heat issues at all.

indoor tank, skylight tubes with natural sunlight.

woo, interesting discussion though! :)
 
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pirataman

Member
Corallimorph thats my man!!! lot of mangrove? how are going with that proyect? I got 25 red mangrove incrusted in live rock in my 125 gal. in the main tank (they got 3 years) natural sun light, got to scrape my glass every 5 days (no big problem with algae) a lot of pencil urchins for cleaning the rock (best for that kind of job) 1/2 hp chiller no Temp. problems, no rain problems, got carribean species only, pygmy angel fish, jewel damsel, green carpets, sun corals, some gorgonians, zooantids, ricordias & my new fish a sargasum trigger so keep on corallimorp!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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corallimorph

Has been struck by the ban stick
My project has taken an unbelievable turn( however the 125 mangrove refugium is still the same)...i have just re configured the whole thing creating two separate systems.
I have a big surprise in store!:whstlr:
 
Boomer

Boomer

Reef Sanctuary's Mr. Wizard
I have to agree with Matt on the algae problem. I have seen it many times. The success or unsuccess is how it is run, more or less what Mike has stated. You have to remember it is a closed system and small and MH are not the sun by a long shot.

Nice to see wehat you are doing corallimorph :D
 
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