Earlier today there was a post on one of the Facebook pages regarding tank placement, sunlight and the negative effects that could be had due to placing a tank near a window. This is still a very widespread and unfounded belief in the hobby, that if your tank is near a window or somewhere where it will receive any direct sunlight that algae will grow rampant in your tank and you'll never have any control.
Well folks, this is completely untrue! This is a leftover relic of the hobby from a decade or two ago when filtration techniques and a large amount of other aspects of reefing were poorly understood and very inefficient. When canister filters and air pumps were still being used along with the mighty undergravel filter! A simpler time when phos and nitrates ran wild and unchecked, skimmers were still wooden airstone driven and multiple tangs could be kept in 10 gallons of water.
For obvious reason you can see that all or any combination of the above is definitely going to leave you with plenty of unwanted algae growth and those people with pride and a tank near a window or any reflection of sunlight are going to blame the growth on the extra light being received by the tank! Those with a little more knowledge would also throw in a mention of the red spectrum of sunlight which is fantastic for plant growth but they were still sadly off the mark.
Sunlight whether it is direct, refracted, reflected, polarized, intensified or travels through a series of reflective tubes controlled by mice to ensure the right amount is received does not cause unwanted algae growth. Here we all are blasting our tanks away with LED's, T5's, metal halides or any combination in between and we're worried about a little extra light...
Embrace it I say! I'm sure your inhabitants would enjoy basking in a little of the warm glow from the ever-sustaining Overlord of ours, the star we commonly lovingly refer to as the Sun! If you are able to manage your tank without any sunlight then having it around will make no difference, sure it's going to bump up the amount of light in the tank but there are many tanks out there still using 6500K colour temperature lighting systems and there are those CRAZY enough to be using the bloody Sun itself!! They definitely create some amazing tanks, search up solar tubes and reef tanks. The proof is in the pudding!
I do apologize for the length of this post but I wanted to ramble and use a bit of tongue in cheek humor!
tl:dr Put your tank wherever the bloody hell you want and stop fretting about sunlight! It's not going to cause you to have an algae growing machine if you're in control!
(This photo isn't mine and I don't take credit for it. If the owner want's it removed please let me know. I thought it's a good attention grabber)
Well folks, this is completely untrue! This is a leftover relic of the hobby from a decade or two ago when filtration techniques and a large amount of other aspects of reefing were poorly understood and very inefficient. When canister filters and air pumps were still being used along with the mighty undergravel filter! A simpler time when phos and nitrates ran wild and unchecked, skimmers were still wooden airstone driven and multiple tangs could be kept in 10 gallons of water.
For obvious reason you can see that all or any combination of the above is definitely going to leave you with plenty of unwanted algae growth and those people with pride and a tank near a window or any reflection of sunlight are going to blame the growth on the extra light being received by the tank! Those with a little more knowledge would also throw in a mention of the red spectrum of sunlight which is fantastic for plant growth but they were still sadly off the mark.
Sunlight whether it is direct, refracted, reflected, polarized, intensified or travels through a series of reflective tubes controlled by mice to ensure the right amount is received does not cause unwanted algae growth. Here we all are blasting our tanks away with LED's, T5's, metal halides or any combination in between and we're worried about a little extra light...
Embrace it I say! I'm sure your inhabitants would enjoy basking in a little of the warm glow from the ever-sustaining Overlord of ours, the star we commonly lovingly refer to as the Sun! If you are able to manage your tank without any sunlight then having it around will make no difference, sure it's going to bump up the amount of light in the tank but there are many tanks out there still using 6500K colour temperature lighting systems and there are those CRAZY enough to be using the bloody Sun itself!! They definitely create some amazing tanks, search up solar tubes and reef tanks. The proof is in the pudding!
I do apologize for the length of this post but I wanted to ramble and use a bit of tongue in cheek humor!
tl:dr Put your tank wherever the bloody hell you want and stop fretting about sunlight! It's not going to cause you to have an algae growing machine if you're in control!
(This photo isn't mine and I don't take credit for it. If the owner want's it removed please let me know. I thought it's a good attention grabber)
