Fishies & Windows

[Seb Spiers]

If I put a 25l tank in my kitchen by the window is this likely to be a problem with direct sunlight being on the tank for a few hours of everyday? Might it raise the water temp too high?

 

[shelaghfishface]

probably and also you`ll get a lot of algae growing too.. does it have a background on it, i have 2 small tanks that are very near windows and altho i say probably and algae growth, i dont have any problems at all with them, just keep your eye on them and be ready to move them if you have to, fish wont like it if the temp starts jumping up and down

 

[three-fingers]

Wouldn't worry about the water temperature too much, unless it gets above 30* celcius which is unlikely. You'll just have to monitor the temperature to see what it gets too.

You just have to consider that your tank will now be getting short periods of very high light, so you'll have to work out some balance with plants and/or ferts and/or algae eaters unless you don't mind loads of algae building up.

I've had tanks set up in the sunlight and though it was great, you really get to see brilliant colours in the fish and the plants love it.

 

[shelaghfishface]

chuck in some moss balls, ive got 5 in a 28L maybe thats why i dont have algae

 

[Angie_B]

Just a thought, I am no expert. But, my tank is diagonally in a corner, but on the opposite wall I have some french doors and one day I noticed that the sun had crept round the curtain and was filtering direct sunlight on my tank.

I remember thinking, I don't know if this is ok or not .. but it looked natural and the fish didn't mind and didn't get up immediately to close the gap. But generally during the day the curtains are closed because I am at work and I was concerned about sun hitting the tank.

But a few days later my Danios went down with a case of Velvet. I have since read that the photosynthesis (sorry about spelling) aids the production of the Velvet organism ... could this be related to me seeing the sun on the tank that day???

 

[minxfishy]

Yep my kitchen tanks had direct sunlight for about an hour a day, especially in the summer and the algae was a real pain, so I bought curtains specifically to pull at that time of day, problem went away

 

[three-fingers]

...tbh I've never been convinced about moss balls...they are just a type of hair algae...but they grow so slowly I don't see how they would supress other types of algae.

Look nice...but I don't think the work wonders at stopping algae, I do like them, but at lfs they can be expensive so buying them just to stop algae would be a bit of a waste IMO.