Sunlight/Algae In Reefs - Myth or Fact ?

[4x4cubereefer]

Something ive been thinking about the past few days is where people say that sunlight is a contributing factor to algae in a reef tank .. but the thing that gets me is providing nutrients/water parameters are in line you shouldnt see algae problems at all even more so if you have a reverse cycle refugium/reactor/scrubber, now to take that further why is it that seasoned reefers sometimes opt for a skylight/sunlight lit tank .. if sunlight did indeed cause unsightly algae in our reefs then how come some of the most amazing sps tanks ive seen are naturally lit by sun light .. does this simply fall down to nutrient import/export or is there more to it ?
In your experience fact or myth ?



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[journeyman]

Natural sunlight likely provides the best, most efficient spectrum for corals, hence the beautiful corals you'd see. Logically it would do the same for algae. So my guess is that sunlight does not produce less algae, but rather the people who are dedicated enough to set up sunlit tanks practice good enough husbandry by keeping their displays algae free.

thesimplereef.com

[Bpb]

Hit the nail on the head. It’s not that one light versus another will cause an algae explosion or suppression. Or even that one set of parameters will encourage algae more than another. I’ve had every surface coated in green hair algae with immeasurable NO3 and PO4, biopellet reactor, gfo reactor, and carbon reactor running. I’ve also had NO3 in excess of 50 ppm and PO4 over 0.4 ppm, zero reactors or chemical filtration of any kind, and without one single spec of algae to be found. Those parameter extreme ends were run for many many months at a time over my course in the hobby.

It’s less an issue of sunlight/artificial light or high/low nutrients, and more an issue of tank age, biodiversity, and careful stocking (not necessarily low stocking, but the right stocking) of fish and inverts. Provided the tank is more than a year old, A pincushion urchin and a common foxface can easily rid a 100 gallon tank of every spec of algae and keep it gone, no matter how much light, what spectrum, and what parameters you run


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[Misled]

Yep, just like corals, algae needs light and nutrients to grow and survive. Take away one or the other, not so much.

[smatter]

In Winter the sun is at such low angle it reaches all the way to the other side of the room where the tank is. My wife gets bent out of shape because I'm always leaving her shear curtains open as not to filter the light because it looks so cool in the tank. No algae problems here.

[o2manyfish]

The majority of my 1100g reef system is outside. My frag tanks have been outside in direct sunlight for more than 15 years. My frag tanks, and sump tanks and refugium don't grow algae at any different rate than my display tank.

They do grow corals 3-10x faster depending on the coral. My whole system inside to out is connected. Same coral inside (under Radion G3 Pros) and outside in the sunlight -- Sunlight grows everything faster.

My 240g rock sump/refugium (outside) during the summer can produce a 5g bucket of chaeto every 5-7 days.

My tanks (inside and out) have almost no problematic algae.

And my phosphates for the past 4 years have never been below 1.4 and earlier this year were 2.6 (Triton ICP Testing).

Dave B

[Subsea]

Originally Posted by o2manyfish

The majority of my 1100g reef system is outside. My frag tanks have been outside in direct sunlight for more than 15 years. My frag tanks, and sump tanks and refugium don't grow algae at any different rate than my display tank.

They do grow corals 3-10x faster depending on the coral. My whole system inside to out is connected. Same coral inside (under Radion G3 Pros) and outside in the sunlight -- Sunlight grows everything faster.

My 240g rock sump/refugium (outside) during the summer can produce a 5g bucket of chaeto every 5-7 days.

My tanks (inside and out) have almost no problematic algae.

And my phosphates for the past 4 years have never been below 1.4 and earlier this year were 2.6 (Triton ICP Testing).

Dave B

Dave,
I read the first page of your build thread. You have an interesting background pertaining to aquaculture and reefing. Your high phosphate flys in the face of the “low nutrient” SPS reefers out there. Do your nitrates run > 30ppm?

As a seaweed farmer, I observe & emulate nature. Sunlight spectrum is filtered out with depth. Lower energy spectrum of reds, yellows & orange are filtered out first. I have always wondered why certain macros are collected in deep water. In the case of Bortacladia, I have determined that if acclimated, it will deal with high light. Color pigments went from dark burgundy to fire engine red then to red orange. Most coral that I have seen under sunlight is brown. Do you sell your coral direct from sunlite tanks or do you bring them in under specific lighting to enhance display colors?

[o2manyfish]

Subsea,

I don't sell my coral. My coral is only for trading or donating. The corals outside are far from brown.

In fact a majority of the corals outside were purchased/rescued as brown acros and put outside to color up. The sunlight can take a turd brown acro and make it colorful in 8-10 days and spectacular in a month. I have been rescuing brown acros for over 15 years. And I can honestly say that maybe 1 out of 40 won't color up outside in the sun.

I have a live webcam on the frag tank. It's PTZ so you can check out the corals and zoom in. I'm in Los Angeles in the last hour before dark we get what I call natural actinic from the dark blue sky. The colors really pop then.

And then at night I have just (2) LED landscape lights set to blue. And the colors are crazy. The camera sometimes will let you see the true colors under the blue LED.

The webcam address is www.o2manyfish.com/fragtank


In regards to bringing the corals inside to enhance display colors. My experience is probably 70% of the corals look better outside under sun light. Not when I say this I am talking about comparing colors of corals in a fish tank. Not corals shot top down under blue, super blue, crazy blue, bluer blue and baby blue bulbs. Those colors while stunning in my opinion are not what a coral really looks like.

So when comparing tank lighting (Radions G3 Pro) Running and Apex 20k color profile the colors outside are usually better.

There are other interesting differences. I have lots of the Grafted Monti Cap growing inside and out. When it's under the sunlight the Red outgrows the green probably 10 to 1. When you bring it back under med tank lighting the red and green (within the same coral) grow equally.

Dave B