Drop clothes on tanks Yes/NO?

K

KiwiBoy

AC Members
Nov 29, 2009
16
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0
Hey all

Where my tank is positioned in my house catches a decent portion on the morning sun. Theres no direct sunlight but its very bright in the room in the AM.

My genius** idea is to routinely place a drop cloth over the tank before I go to bed and remove it at around midday, to reduce the light factor/dissuade algea build up on the tank

Should I get a black cloth to produce a very dark situation in there, which would make it similair/the same as night time. or is some thing quite light coloured better. ie Which would block out the brightness but still let the fish see in that 6am -miday period

I work from home so mantaining this type of schedule will be mostly easy



**It is possible of course this idea is in fact terrible and a big no no. hence me posting to chcek
 
Direct sunlight would cause algae, not as much with indirect. What kind of algae are you haveing trouble with, this will determine course of action.
 
I also have this problem, but with with afternoon sun. I'm also having algae problems. Would it be possible to leave on the tank light, but cover it up so no additional light will come in? This day, it will be still "day" for the fish
 
I dont have algea problems, Im anticipating them..... given the extreme amount of large windows in the room. They all have blinds but they are light coloured

Reason for my post is to discover whether using drop/tank covering clothes is generally considered a no-no in the fish keeping world.

am I looking at this the wrong way? Trying to be proactive rather than reactive is all......
 
As long as there is no direct sun light hitting the tank you shouldn't have an algae problem. I have a bright living room every morning and have both my 75g fw and 29g sw in this room and don't have any algae problems in either. Hope this helps you decide.
 
just close the blinds at night, if they are light colored they will reflect most of the light anyway and you should not have an issue
 
Ordinary window glass passes about 90% of UVA, but blocks over 90% of UVB. These are outside of the visible light range and visible light is what algae uses to photosynthesize.

As to the OPs anticipated problem I would use the blinds and see how it goes. If you develop algae then I would make some sort of black removable cover that only covers the rear and sides of the tank. I would not cover the top.

Q
 
It depends on your windows as well. Are they insulated unit with Lowe-E glass? If so they will be much more efficient that regular clear glass.
 
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