natural sunlight

[ohio reefer]

how much of an issue is natural sunlight on my reef aquarium? the position i placed it is getting some afternoon sun (it was cloudy when i placed it). i use R/O water. am i going to have algea problems?

i know when i had a fresh water tank years ago that they said not to put by a window.

should i put up curtains?

TIA

mark

[reefrunner69]

i use R/O water. am i going to have algea problems?

Possibly, depends on your other husbandry habits.

Yep, I would put up some curtains

[jackdp]

Agreed, the natural sunlight can cause algae problems but even more, depending on the size of the tank and temperatures, it could cause overheating problems. If the afternoon sun hits my 20 gallon in the summer here it really heats up.

[leafyseadragon]

I have my tank situated so that the right side glass gets the afternoon sun. Algae does grow much faster on that pane than all the others, but I just use my magnetic scraper to get it off. I'd worry more about the increase in temperature.

[ohio reefer]

thanks all!!!

mark

[BTA]

The only place I could put my tank was such that it would get morning sun from one side for only about 1 hour. It's been over a year. It is not so bad but I do get all kinds of algae. I added a few turbo snails and a skimmer & use RO water and the algae that I get on a continuous basis in very much under control.
The snails do much of the work. So don't worry about it. Everyone gets algae, you just get a bit more of it. Make sure you add mexican turbo snails tho.