Natural Light Question

[operations]

I'm in the planning stages of a 75G plant tank with some fish. I would like to place the tank in my kitchen which gets a lot of natural light. Is this a workable arrangement if I use a UV sterilizer to minimize algae? Thanks for any help you can provide.

BTW, I've also posted this question at plantgeek.net.

 

[gfink]

I would think it would be no different than a high light tank. How many wpg is your kitchen? lol

If you have plants to use the nutrients, then they should outcompete the algae. You will probably need to have CO2 injection though.

 

[czcz]

You can pull it off. Look for Walstad's tanks on the internet (aquabotanic, for example). Also "natural tanks." There are people with lots of different lighting levels and high tech/maintenence methods supplementing with natural sunlight as well. You dont necessarily need UV.

I have a low light 10g supplemented with a south facing window and it didnt find its balance until it was heavily planted with moderate (~15ppm) CO2 injection and NO3 (~10ppm), fwiw. How many watts will be over the 75?

 

[malkore]

It only works with full, direct sunlight, and you need 10 solid hours.
If your kitchen meets the criteria, go for it. I wouldn't worry about a UV unit though. Its more about maintaining NPK levels, and CO2 injection since this will qualify as high-light.

 

[operations]

I am going to use CO2, and also going to supplement with florescents. Thanks for the encouragement. I will post my progress as it occurs.