Natural vs. artificial lighting

[lagos_reef]

Did anyone ever compared the growth of corals using natural vs. artificial lighting? (using the same system with same parameters).

[mike_cmu04]

I tried natural sunlight and artificial is much better but i live in michigan.

[lagos_reef]

Tks for the information Mike.
The project is to buid a coral farm in Rio de Janeiro, we have bright days all over the year.:spin3:
In your case, did you notice good results with sunlight in the summer?

[nowlan]

Too much sun can be bad.

Look up some of the greenhouse threads about.

Anthony Calfo's book is meant to discuss natural light.

[mike_cmu04]

I did not have good results. the frags became very light with poor colors also growth slowed. It was not due to temperature issues i never got past 81.

[badguitarist]

Here is my limited experience for what its worth, My dad has an orchid greenhouse so I comandereed a bit of space out there and have a few rubbermaid tubs set up, they've been set up for about 3 years now. From what I have experienced its very hard to generalize whether natural is better or worse, I will say its harder to control since it fluctuates so much. In the winter things like mushrooms zoanthids and euphilias do great. in the summer I have to shade them heavily or they will get killed or seriously maimed by the over-abundant light. On the other hand, Pretty much all the SPS I have out there in the winter need MH suplementation or they die (I learned this the hard way the first winter.) However, in the summer my SPS have better color out there than in any tank I've ever seen. There are some critters (many leather corals, fungia, rose anemones) that seem to adjust to whatever light they are in without much difficulty. In summary, it really depends what you want to keep and where you are located (im in Oregon, USA.) I think natural sun is much better if you are doing it on a large commercial scale because of the money you save. If you are talking about just a tank I would say artificial is much easier to control, although if you are willing to do the extra work I still think you can get much more spectacular results with natural light, or a mixture of both, not to mention sun and lunar cycles are huge keys to breeding many fish and invertabrates. Hope this helps

[rhys123]

Here is my limited experience for what its worth, My dad has an orchid greenhouse so I comandereed a bit of space out there and have a few rubbermaid tubs set up, they've been set up for about 3 years now. From what I have experienced its very hard to generalize whether natural is better or worse, I will say its harder to control since it fluctuates so much. In the winter things like mushrooms zoanthids and euphilias do great. in the summer I have to shade them heavily or they will get killed or seriously maimed by the over-abundant light. On the other hand, Pretty much all the SPS I have out there in the winter need MH suplementation or they die (I learned this the hard way the first winter.) However, in the summer my SPS have better color out there than in any tank I've ever seen. There are some critters (many leather corals, fungia, rose anemones) that seem to adjust to whatever light they are in without much difficulty. In summary, it really depends what you want to keep and where you are located (im in Oregon, USA.) I think natural sun is much better if you are doing it on a large commercial scale because of the money you save. If you are talking about just a tank I would say artificial is much easier to control, although if you are willing to do the extra work I still think you can get much more spectacular results with natural light, or a mixture of both, not to mention sun and lunar cycles are huge keys to breeding many fish and invertabrates. Hope this helps

Well said mirrors my experience with natural sunlight in Australia as well.

[lagos_reef]

Here is my limited experience for what its worth, My dad has an orchid greenhouse so I comandereed a bit of space out there and have a few rubbermaid tubs set up, they've been set up for about 3 years now. From what I have experienced its very hard to generalize whether natural is better or worse, I will say its harder to control since it fluctuates so much. In the winter things like mushrooms zoanthids and euphilias do great. in the summer I have to shade them heavily or they will get killed or seriously maimed by the over-abundant light. On the other hand, Pretty much all the SPS I have out there in the winter need MH suplementation or they die (I learned this the hard way the first winter.) However, in the summer my SPS have better color out there than in any tank I've ever seen. There are some critters (many leather corals, fungia, rose anemones) that seem to adjust to whatever light they are in without much difficulty. In summary, it really depends what you want to keep and where you are located (im in Oregon, USA.) I think natural sun is much better if you are doing it on a large commercial scale because of the money you save. If you are talking about just a tank I would say artificial is much easier to control, although if you are willing to do the extra work I still think you can get much more spectacular results with natural light, or a mixture of both, not to mention sun and lunar cycles are huge keys to breeding many fish and invertabrates. Hope this helps

Tks for share!
So I think I am in the right way, I am projecting a system that has an outside tank and an inside tank, I was doing this way to make easier to control temperature and to protect eletric parts. So now I will also project to have space at both parts (inside and outside) to manage the corals according to sun adaptation, great!

[evoracer]

Garrett's Acropolis ( http://www.garretts-acropolis.com/ ) grows completely under natural sunlight in Southern California. His corals are outstanding!