Direct Sunlight Resulting in > 1100 PAR!!!

[rtparty]

I have had many successful tanks right in the front of windows and letting in as much natural light as possible.

In the summer, my basement windows get blasted with morning light and I crank all the blinds open so my old 250g tank would get as much sun as I could give it.

You sure your bleaching and lightening issues aren’t from low nutrients or lack of food?

Let me see if I can dig up a pic of my tank with the sun on it

 

[Aquariumaddictuk]

Ted danson navigated this issue in the movie "three men & a baby" by putting an almost life-size cardboard cut out of himself in the window thus blocking the light & saving his delicate SPS from bleaching.

View attachment 3953121

 

[ksliech]

To get a better idea of how long I'm getting blasted with sun, I found "Sun position and path" for iOS, which uses AR to show you where the sun is going to be. It's actually quite good. I squatted down and positioned the camera right next to the tank for the proper perspective.

From the side window shown in the original photo:

It's hard to read but it's getting direct sunlight from 11:30-2:15PM, so nearly 3 hours. During this time is where I was measuring the crazy 1100 PAR. Looking at the winter numbers, it's going to get just a little lower. The summer numbers were way higher and beyond the windows, so this window won't get direct light for much of the year. This light comes in from the left side of the tank, which I have a reasonable chance of blocking.

Here's the other window that I was worried about:

We're getting blasted from around 8:30AM - 10:15AM, so just under 2 hours. I imagine the sun is less strong during this time, but will measure in the morning. This light comes in the FRONT of the tank, which will be super hard to block.

My temporary partial fix is to affix a piece of black poster board to the left side of the tank, which will take care of the bulk of the direct sun from 11:30-2:15, but some will go over the top of the paper and reflect internally and still blast my 'shrooms.

Will see how this is looking tomorrow...

I really appreciate all the ideas here! Especially the insane pics, lol

 

[ksliech]

I have had many successful tanks right in the front of windows and letting in as much natural light as possible.

In the summer, my basement windows get blasted with morning light and I crank all the blinds open so my old 250g tank would get as much sun as I could give it.

You sure your bleaching and lightening issues aren’t from low nutrients or lack of food?

Let me see if I can dig up a pic of my tank with the sun on it

You have a good point, and have been worried the tank was too clean, so I just removed the roller mat the other day. I just can't imagine 1100 PAR on my acros or 500 PAR on my zoas and shrooms is a recipe for success either.

 

[Aquariumaddictuk]

Ted danson navigated this issue in the movie "three men & a baby" by putting an almost life-size cardboard cut out of himself in the window thus blocking the light & saving his delicate SPS from bleaching.

View attachment 3953121

 

[rtparty]

You have a good point, and have been worried the tank was too clean, so I just removed the roller mat the other day. I just can't imagine 1100 PAR on my acros or 500 PAR on my zoas and shrooms is a recipe for success either.

While it is different, they get blasted with way more than that in the ocean. Many acros are fully out of the water getting blasted by the sun for parts of the day.

 

[Aquariumaddictuk]

You have a good point, and have been worried the tank was too clean, so I just removed the roller mat the other day. I just can't imagine 1100 PAR on my acros or 500 PAR on my zoas and shrooms is a recipe for success either.

Joking aside, I could use this sort of par for my ever growing maxima clam collection :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

 

[ryshark]

I have had many successful tanks right in the front of windows and letting in as much natural light as possible.

In the summer, my basement windows get blasted with morning light and I crank all the blinds open so my old 250g tank would get as much sun as I could give it.

You sure your bleaching and lightening issues aren’t from low nutrients or lack of food?

Let me see if I can dig up a pic of my tank with the sun on it

This was my first thought too, I question if that San Francisco sun is really the issue.

 

[ryshark]

But if you want to block the sun I'd vote for window tint

 

[ryshark]

You have a good point, and have been worried the tank was too clean, so I just removed the roller mat the other day. I just can't imagine 1100 PAR on my acros or 500 PAR on my zoas and shrooms is a recipe for success either.

Less than 2 hours of natural sun... What are your PO3/NO4 and alkalinity? And current photoperiod

 

[VintageReefer]

Put up some tint that will reduce sun but still allow a view out. I have dark tint on my car but I can see out just fine.

 

[bradreef]

I have had many successful tanks right in the front of windows and letting in as much natural light as possible.

In the summer, my basement windows get blasted with morning light and I crank all the blinds open so my old 250g tank would get as much sun as I could give it.

You sure your bleaching and lightening issues aren’t from low nutrients or lack of food?

Let me see if I can dig up a pic of my tank with the sun on it

I'll 2nd this. People used to light tanks with solar tubes years ago. O2manyfish grew frag systems in direct sunlight outdoors. Corals can adapt and thrive with sunlight.

 

[ksliech]

Less than 2 hours of natural sun... What are your PO3/NO4 and alkalinity? And current photoperiod

Measurements:
Phosphate: 0.04 ppm (Hanna HI774 ULR)
Nitrate: Undetectable (Red Sea)
Alk: 9 dKH (Trident)
CA: 430 ppm (Trident)
Salinity: 1.026 SG

Regarding my very low phosphate and nitrate: I've got chaeto in the sump growing well, which I added when I was having hair algae issues (now completely gone). Inside the tank I've got a lot of dictyota creeping up that I want it to compete with.

Photoperiod
Kessil's are on from 10AM to 10PM (2 hour ramp up and down included)
Direct sun starts around 8:30AM and lasts till around 2:15PM, so that really drags the photoperiod out from 12 hours to more like 13.5 which is pretty long...

Given the direct sun, maybe I should delay the Kessil's start up to coincide with the direct sunlight fading away. In addition, I could also turn the lights off earlier but it's eating into the evening viewing time.

What do you think?

 

[ryshark]

Measurements:
Phosphate: 0.04 ppm (Hanna HI774 ULR)
Nitrate: Undetectable (Red Sea)
Alk: 9 dKH (Trident)
CA: 430 ppm (Trident)
Salinity: 1.026 SG

Regarding my very low phosphate and nitrate: I've got chaeto in the sump growing well, which I added when I was having hair algae issues (now completely gone). Inside the tank I've got a lot of dictyota creeping up that I want it to compete with.

Photoperiod
Kessil's are on from 10AM to 10PM (2 hour ramp up and down included)
Direct sun starts around 8:30AM and lasts till around 2:15PM, so that really drags the photoperiod out from 12 hours to more like 13.5 which is pretty long...

Given the direct sun, maybe I should delay the Kessil's start up to coincide with the direct sunlight fading away. In addition, I could also turn the lights off earlier but it's eating into the evening viewing time.

What do you think?

That is pretty low nutrients and long photoperiod.
You could do what you suggested.
Or shorten the maxed out photoperiod in the middle to be less than 8 hours at full intensity.
Regardless, I’d get nutrients up a little bit, I don’t like undetectable

 

[ryshark]

I’m not familiar with dictoyota.

 

[ksliech]

Alright, here's what I've done for my light concerns:

• Covered the left side of the tank that gets the most sun with black posterboard
• Adjusted my photoperiod to not have the peak overlap with the peak direct sun

In case it's nutrients, I've removed the roller mat and will increase feeding a bit.

We'll see how things go. Thanks for the help!

 

[rhaetuluscrenatus]

Rule #1 - never put an aquarium near any windows. :)

thank you to not follow your advice, my tank is closed to window and got 450 par from the lighting at top rock and 500-650 par from 8:00 to 12:00 from the sunlight, and i'm so happy with that, here is my tank: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/550-liters-systerm-sps-and-lps-separately.1065384/page-2

 

[Reefering1]

Corals can adapt and thrive with sunlight

Don't forget, corals have been living (thriving) in sunlight for millions of years. These blue leds are the deviation..

 

[Dr Bob from Guam]

shade cloth is what the clam farmers use, comes in different colors and blockage %

 

[mww00ds]

I've used a piece of black acrylic panel on my 60 gal cube that's right next to window. I've got it held up with my gyre pump and frag rock rack magnets. I've got it set up on the panel that directly faces the window. For me it works pretty good, even added some ocean life stickers I've gotten from different vendors to give it a little interest.