Tank Natural Sunlight

[Huskymaniac]

So I am about to setup tank #3 in my living room. After years of having anemones they decided to start wandering so they are going to be moved into my new reefer 170. My living room gets blasted though with so much natural light. Not sure if putting the tank here would be a good idea. I used to have a freshwater tank there it was really wild with all the light hitting the tank. Was thinking maybe blacking out the sides to help? Thoughts.....

 

[Etmanning]

Might be really hard to deal with algae. My tank gets about an hour of top down light daily and it does great, but a longer exposure of all around light is probably not going to work great.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Might be really hard to deal with algae. My tank gets about an hour of top down light daily and it does great, but a longer exposure of all around light is probably not going to work great.

Was thinking if I black out the sides and only have the front panel see through that may help a lot.

 

[Etmanning]

Was thinking if I black out the sides and only have the front panel see through that may help a lot.

That would definitely help, but then you have a tank with only one viewing pannel. Maybe think about trying all around tint? Something not too dark as to make it so you can't see the tank but dark enough to help out a lot?

40% on the sides and 60-70% front maybe?

 

[cojo8888]

I do get sunlight on my qt and it's a mess lol temp swing on summer too

 

[Huskymaniac]

That would definitely help, but then you have a tank with only one viewing pannel. Maybe think about trying all around tint? Something not too dark as to make it so you can't see the tank but dark enough to help out a lot?

40% on the sides and 60-70% front maybe?

I am not to concerned with the side viewing panels. I will have to figure something out. Most of the sun is going to hit the sides while the front should be blocked out.

 

[mort]

Sunlight seems to always provoke the same answer, "you'll get loads of algae" but it's not the light that causes algae but the water nutrients. If you are confident you can keep the water quality high then I think it adds to a tank, as fish and corals react really well to natural light.
I'm currently doing something similar but am actively encouraging direct sunlight with my only worry about temperature stability. Our summers rarely get above 30c so I'm hoping it will work with perhaps a little shading on the hottest days.

 

[Subsea]

I have purposely set tanks up to capture sunlight. Early morning sunlight provides a unique visual to observe a tank. I like dappled sun light in my display tanks.

 

[emilios_reeftank]

I have a tank right next to a window in my house, but I have a shade in the window 24/7. I don't think you would be interested in doing that all the time considering its in your living room. I know you mentioned the shading on both sides. IMO it would totally work, but its up to you if you want to view the tank from those angles.