covering side walls???

[petemichelle]

everybody covers the back wall with black paper or something like that. has anybody covered the side walls? my back wall is covered with black paper and also everything can grow on it like coraline algae even corals like montiporas and others etc.... all i do is leave it alone and maybe glue a coral to it once in a while and let it take off. what's the difference with the side wall? if i leave it alone, algae grows on it and unwanted stuff like hydroids. if i glue a coral to it, most times it doesn't make it. is it because it's not covered like the back wall and light transmits through it? will I get the same effect if I covered the side walls like I did the back wall when I started the aquarium?

 

[dbowman5]

i have one side wall facing the room and one against the wall. i scrape the side that i view through and the front. coralline has grown on the wall facing side even though it was not painted and the wall is white. If you don't wish to see through the sides blacking them would be appropriate, but i would wonder whether the problem might be flow or related to the par from your tank lights.

 

[petemichelle]

i have one side wall facing the room and one against the wall. i scrape the side that i view through and the front. coralline has grown on the wall facing side even though it was not painted and the wall is white. If you don't wish to see through the sides blacking them would be appropriate, but i would wonder whether the problem might be flow or related to the par from your tank lights.

wouldn't the light and flow be the same as the rest of the tank. I have 6 ecotech Radions, 150 gal, 6 foot long tank. I have 3 MP40 vortech, one on each side, one on back in center.

 

[petemichelle]

what benefits do you gain from blacking them out? obvious and definite ones, and maybe's?

 

[petemichelle]

come one people, I thought I would gain a lot more replies on this one. agree, disagree, thoughts, experiences. anybody even sharing the same experience or even thoughts.

 

[petemichelle]

i also notice that when I put in a clear acrylic magnetic frag rack it seems to grow more algae on it faster than the black egg crate ones. or does one think that it's the material. my thought was the clear part, and that the lighting was maybe the factor.

 

[sfin52]

I leave the walls alone. What grows is what grows. Natural food for the critters. Urchin , seahare and tang love the walls