Marine Tank ok with sunlight?

[sweetmisery]

Is it ok if sunlight hits the marine tank or should I just avoid it? My old tank used to get sunlight around morning and I guess its the cause of some brown hairy algae that sticks to the glass... But you guys are the expert, so I need to know so I know where to place the new aquarium.

[jman785]

Sunlight, definently can be a cause of algae growth, so to avoid extra algae growth, avoid the extra sunlight...although if you have Sun Tubes, the skylights that direct sunlight directly at your tank, for your corals..then you face a problem of more algae, but your tank gets natural sunlight...and spectacular coral growth.

[mojoreef]

Yea the sunlight is ok but the problem is that the window glass and the tank glass skew the spectrum of the light, and algae like the resulting color

Mike

[Condiman]

I have herd of people using skylights that they place over the tank for lighting but as Mojo said the glass in the window and tank screw with the spectrum.

[Gringoloco]

I have somewhat of light that enters my tank during the day from the side about 8 ft away from my tank is a sliding door. It does increase the algae a little but not as much I guess as it being directly on the tank all day. Natural sunlight is their source of lighting in the wild, but as far as the fake sunlight. I could see why it would mess up the spectrum. As for algae growth nothing that a little maintenance cant take care of.

[sweetmisery]

So what fish, or invertebrates that eats/stop algae growth greatly more than others that I can put in my tank?

[jman785]

I'd definently go with some snails.

Margarita, Astrea, Cerith, Nerite snails all help with algae reduction. As well as turbo snails.

I'd suggest buying a cleanup crew package, or an algae crew package.

I highly suggest NOT purchasing Emerald Crabs, to help cleanup, because all the ones I've purchased, have turned into killers...taking out many high priced expensive fish. In my store, I don't sell them as algae eaters to people, although they do eat algae, if the algae supply runs low, or they have a change in taste, they dine on fish normally...

Blue legged hermits are another source of cleanup...

Try finding a nice Algae Crew package. Or a cleanup crew.

[sweetmisery]

Im afraid such packages are not available here... a few pet stores that do sell marine life for aquariums dont have such or all I see are shrimps. I can ask the fishermen directly though... thanks!

How about hermit crabs at the beach... are those advisable?

[jman785]

Ask the fishermen for snails...

I do NOT recommend adding hermits from the beach, because you don't know if they are meat eaters or plant eaters. A good way is to look at their claws and see if they have big mean looking claws, like if they pinched you, they would hurt, or draw blood, those would be the ones you wouldn't want to have in your tank :)

[sweetmisery]

Most are small but they do have big pinchers compared to some at the water line itself, which have small(or that they are just coincidently females). They are too small to hurt even the smallest fish though(the ones with big claws at the shore)... though I have seen a few BIG ones, the size of an anemone, now thats scary!

How about brittle stars? Slugs? Sea bats?

[jman785]

Brittle stars are fine.

Slugs I'd stay away from.

Sea bats? I have not a clue what those are hehe ;)


I'd definently get some snails if you could though.

[sweetmisery]

Sea bats are like sea cocumbers, but shorter and harder. They are considered a delicacy by some local people near the sea.

Yeah Ill get snails! and whats wrong with sea slugs?

[jman785]

I don't like sea slugs, because they can foul the water quickly, especially if they die you don't know they are dead yet.

[coral_diver]

I just bought a lettuce sea slug and he is a good cleaner but they are known not to live longer than maybe 2years. Sea bats? are they filter feeders like my sea cucumbers? they are on the hard side but they do not sift sand like many seem to think but if hungry they will sometimes sweep the sand with their tenticles.

[moranpr1973]

Just my 2 cents, make sure if you do decide to put a HC collected from the beach that it is not a terrestrial HC or he would drown. They usually hang around the shore collecting food but are not meant to live underwater.

[Condiman]

Now I believe it is possible to have your tank lit by natural sunlight but with most home aquariums there are excess nutrients and that is what will cause your algae bloom. If you have a home aquarium that has almost no excess nutrients then you should have no problem with letting the sunlight on your tank.