Natural sunlight on a 10g coral prog tank

[Felipe]

I decided I wanted to create a propagation specific tank for corals.

I didn't want to have to invest on a set of MH or even PC's so I placed the tank near my window. I live in Florida, so when the sun beams down on it, for aaround 4 hs/day, the temp goes from 78 to around 84.

That big of a jump everyday, seems like it would hurt the coral's growth.
Is there anything I can do, besides a chiller?

The tank is new, so I was thinking maybe if I add 2 power heads the circulation of water could (hopefully) keep it cooler.

Any ideas welcome.

Felipe

 

[Nautilus1]

A fan blowing on he water's surface would help. Powerheads give off heat but the circulation they provide my offsett the added heat.

 

[Anonymous]

A fan blowing on he water's surface would help. Powerheads give off heat but the circulation they provide my offsett the added heat.

Agree. Evaporative cooling works great. I use a fan blowing across the surface of the water all summer, in an area where 90 degrees and 95% humidy can hang around for days, and we like the windows open as opposed to air conditioning. Tank stays a steady 80-81 no matter what, with very few peaks of 82.

I am replacing a lot of top off water, but thats fine with me.

 

[Felipe]

A fan blowing on he water's surface would help. Powerheads give off heat but the circulation they provide my offsett the added heat.

Seems like I will have to try that.How do your corals do in the natural sunlight?

 

[Anonymous]

I had a 38g tank/surge system next to a window so it got lit by natural sunlight, here in San Francisco that tank got up to 90F on unclouded days! I don't think all the evaporative cooling in the world would bring that down. Other options are to have a partially shaded tank or better yet a very large volume of water not in the sun (sump) and hopefully it won't heat up as much.

Depending upon the corals they may or may not like the natural sunlight, if you do too much too quickly they very easily can brown out (they'll still be alive, just browner than you'd like).

 

[Anonymous]

What effects does sunlight passing through window glass have on the tanks? I have experienced algae where natural sunlight hits my tank for the 15 minutes in the evening. Is this because of the sunlight passing through 2 panes on glass? My hammer coral loves it though, even though it is only 15 minutes in the evening it gets huge when natrual sunlight hits it.

 

[tinyreef]

here's my 2.5g pico under sunlight (at just over 6 mos., one week ago) in northern NJ.

as suggested by others, the temperature was basically the main issue for me. without a deskfan (8"), the temp easily reached 88F in late autumn (even with room temps at about 68F).

now with warmer temps coming with the season change, i've had to upgrade that fan to a 20" standfan (the grilled monster lurking in the background). it keeps the tank cool, actually too cool even on oscillating motion. but i don't have anything smaller at the moment and frankly i think i'll need the whole fan's effect later as we approach summer.

the system's pretty much sealed, not 100% like brandon's though, so there's basically very little evaporative cooling. so the bulk of the cooling is derived from the air motion against the glass.

i wouldn't worry too much about the coloration of the corals (ymmv). i've been pleasantly surprised at the coloration maintenance and even color enrichment of some of the corals. nothing has gone brown or tan like i initially feared. i suspect the phytoplankton-friendly environment will actually be beneficial for certain corals but i'm studying that a little more still.

one thing about using it as a prop tank is your photoperiod for viewing. depending on your day job, viewing the corals under optimal lighting (late morning to early afternoon) could only be done on the weekends or holidays for me. and only if mother nature cooperated with decent weather.

also, the corals also were able to adjust to a side/angled light versus directly above (assuming a simple window setup like mine versus a more elaborate skylight/greenhouse setup). you have to change some of your thinking on placement and growth patterns but otherwise same techniques and applications imo. hth

 

[Anonymous]

What effects does sunlight passing through window glass have on the tanks? I have experienced algae where natural sunlight hits my tank for the 15 minutes in the evening. Is this because of the sunlight passing through 2 panes on glass?

Most likely it's because the sunlight is heavy in the reds & yellows of the spectrums that typical bulbs we put over our tanks do not have as much of. These spectrums algaes really proliferate at (heck they were the first photosynthetic creatures on the planet!)

 

[Felipe]

I spoke with a friend at the LFS about this. basically, he told me to turn up my heater, so it keeps the water at 82. So when the sun beats down on it, it will go up to 84, and keep the jump at around 2 degrees only.

Sems like a good idea and I am trying that.

Felipe

 

[FragMaster]

Felipe:
Do you have a deck? If it were me and I realy wantted to take full atvantage of the sun for growth I would place my 10g prop tank on a sturdy TV cart and wheel it out on the deck.

A fan is the best idea for cooling. Put it on a timer though. Figure out (round about) what time of day the temp starts to rise. Set your timer and your god to go with stable temps.
DO NOT place macro in this tank sunlight will make it grow like its on crack!

You could also make a lean to out of some clear plastic sheeting incase it rains while its out side? you know a three sided mini green house. Risky though.

If you dont have a deck then use a mirror toyour atvantage.
PLace a mirror in front of your tank to direct the light all over your tank.
This will cause more heast issues over all though so definately use a fan.

Just some Ideas you may want to try?
BUY AN ELCHEAP'O back up pc light for cloudy days/weeks.

Yep the heater will work , but what about a realy hot day or too much light getting in? To much light = to much heat

 

[tinyreef]

I spoke with a friend at the LFS about this. basically, he told me to turn up my heater, so it keeps the water at 82. So when the sun beats down on it, it will go up to 84, and keep the jump at around 2 degrees only.

i completely disagree with that logic. how is maintaining the typical temperature at a higher level going to keep the tank from overheating once the midday sun comes?

or is he thinking of limiting the thermal shock from the vast change (nighttime temps to noontime temps)? it's not a immediate change. it'll be gradual and with a larger tank (10g) it'll be even more "insulated" from abrupt changes than my 2.5g.

either way, i would not take that advice. i very rarely say that so definitively too. set the system up but don't add anything for a week or so. record your various temp readings throughout the day and weather patterns. nothing beats actual hands-on experience with it. try it out yourself and then see what you'll need cooling wise. take special note of late-morning to early-afternoon temps.

i set my heater at 78F. with the fan on, the heater struggles to maintain that actually but again, i'm waiting for the truly warm temps of spring and summer. you will see a skyrocketing of the temp.

like frag suggested (hi dwayne!), set the timer for the fan when you do use it. mine's set for 7AM start (morning sun is actually pretty intense due to my house layout) and turns off at 3PM (i just changed it recently to 3PM form 2PM due to season change).

there's good thread on RC's advanced forum regarding solar lighting (sola-tube thread). there are some good ideas tossed around there. although skylighting is something i think is more effective but obviously more costly in construction and heating/cooling. hth

 

[tinyreef]

DO NOT place macro in this tank sunlight will make it grow like its on crack!

agreed! but i still stuffed chaeto in!

i halve it every week to two weeks (tops). and that's in addition to carbon and Poly-Filters i have in there too.

if you're looking for algae turf scrubbing, sunlight's the way to go. :wink:

 

[Felipe]

The LFS guy's logic was this:

When he keeps the heater at 82, his MH kick on and raise the temp to 84. So only a 2 degree jump.

He said he noticed a max. water temp. If he keeps his MH on 24 hs/day, the temp tops off at 84, so additional lighting wouldn't heat the weater any more than it already had.

Let me know if you think this makes sense.

I did that last night and am keeping a close eye on the temp today.

So far I don't have anything inthe tank.

Felipe

 

[Anonymous]

I happen to agree with the LFS logic. I believe it's a lot less stressful for many animals when the temp is stable vs going from cool to hot. The only provision is to make sure that the animals you are propogating will not be adversely affected by the 84F. There are many Corals that will thrive at 84F but not all of them.

 

[Felipe]

I happen to agree with the LFS logic. I believe it's a lot less stressful for many animals when the temp is stable vs going from cool to hot. The only provision is to make sure that the animals you are propogating will not be adversely affected by the 84F. There are many Corals that will thrive at 84F but not all of them.

Zoa's mostly, is what I am interested in. Although I also plan on the occasional leather, hammer and torch corals.

Felipe
www.Felipe-Bastos.com

 

[Anonymous]

it might be less stressful but that doesn't mean the animals can adjust to the long term temperature increase. Now there are quite a few that can, but you have to stock accordingly(just like GUy said ), corals that have been growing in 76F water while might do ok in 80F water will go south in 84F in the long haul.

I would work more on keeping the temperature stable via other means rather than just making it super hot. Besides I dunno if that'll work, the sun isn't a heater in that it'll heat something up to 84 degrees, it pumps solar radiation into the tank and causes the heat to rise via the energy... but there's no off switch or temp probe that says "stop heating". You will reach a happy medium between energy in and energy out (natural cooling) but that may be higher than 84F by putting a heater in there to 82F you just gave the sun a jump start on water the energy doesn't need to heat throughout the day.

 

[Anonymous]

Zoa's mostly, is what I am interested in. Although I also plan on the occasional leather, hammer and torch corals.

Felipe
www.Felipe-Bastos.com

I have kept all of those at higher temps (85F+) and they thrive in that environment. Everything is accelerated though, growth, feeding, and problems. You'll need to be extra diligent on maintenance.

The Zooanthids you'll have to try on a case by case basis, not all of them can handle higher temps.

Mr. Murphy (of Murphy's Law) would mention that the odds of a Zoa handling the higher temp is inversely proportional to the value of the Zoa. :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

also of note, I wouldn't expect really colorful zoos looking terrible good in direct sunlight, infact you might expect them to look more brown... not all of them but it might be that way.

 

[Felipe]

also of note, I wouldn't expect really colorful zoos looking terrible good in direct sunlight, infact you might expect them to look more brown... not all of them but it might be that way.

Why do you think that is?

Isn't natural sunlight the "best" possible light?

Felipe

 

[Anonymous]

Natural Sunlight has a Kelving color of 5500K. This will look very yellow in your tank and will drown out many of the colors. Since this is a propogation tank and not a display tank I would think you'd be OK with that. They will still look good when placed under light closer to the blue end.