Tanks in sunny rooms-advice pls

Uh,..... curtains?
Sorry MT , I couldn't resist lol

You could buy tank shades and a cooler. You could cover up your tank with the shade when you dont want light to come in. And curtains would help a lot

sunlight wont cause algae!!

I had always heard that overexposure to sunlight would cause algae, Slip...but I think that I will have to believe you (although I would like a source or an anecdotal example)!

Nutrients from overfeeding and too few water changes grow algae. Light, by itself, will not, regardless of the intensity or spectrum.

I know of many fish farmers (and SW coral and clam famers) that use natural sunlight as the light source for their aquariums. With good husbandy skills, by doing water changes and not overstocking or overfeeding, you will not have algae problems.

Okay, good point...I had forgotten the good-old algal triangle. My humble apologies!

~Matthew

I thought the same as you for quite a while and spent a great deal of time rearranging furniture to get the tanks out of sunlight...

As Anthony Calfo says, "If many of the hobbyists that could give their tanks natural sunlight did, arguments about artificial lighting would be moot"

Live and Learn, and then you use nature.

algal triangle? I have never heard of it before. What are the three points to this. Might be a good thing for us newbys to here.

Anecdotal evidence: My planted 40 gets direct, early morning sunlight from sunrise til a few hours later--more in the summer, less in the winter. I don't have any more algae in the summer than I do any other time of year. The only effect I have noticed is that the plants on the exposed side of the tank tend to grow facing the outside of the tank, rather than the lights above.

Algae triangle: nutrients, light, CO2. If you reduce or increase either aspect, you can fluctuate the algae growth to some degree, but without all three, algae won't grow. True plants will utilize the nutrients and CO2 before algae can, in most cases. Plants have the same set of needs, but are, in most cases, better at using them. This is why increasing light won't necessarily increase algae, if nutrients and CO2 levels don't change. The exception is if you have lots of nutrients in the tank currently that are not utilized, and light really is the restricting factor.