Sunlight as a light source in planted tanks

[Romi]

When will this astronomical event happen?

Sorry I didnt quite get it.

If you have doubts, you can visit my house in sarita vihar any time to see the event happening every day

No doubts! What I meant was "when are you going to post the pics?" The event when the act of posting the pics will take place and take me on a mystical odyssey of natural aquarium keeping. But I see that my words did work. The spell is complete. Thank you for posting the pictures.
(I have this funny way of expressing things, can't help it really . A visit to your house in sarita vihar might be in order hehehe)

Now coming to the tanks. They do appear to be in direct sunlight, defying all odds of standard planted tanks.
Very nice growth of plants. I am interested in the tank with the DIY substrate, mind sharing with us the ingredients.
Also what fish do you have in there?
Kudos to for doing something different!

Also winters are here and it also rained today! How are the tanks doing now. Would love to see the progress, keep us updated won't you.

Both Syed and Kaushikda are veterans, and like good cooks that can make savoury dishes even when they don't have a lot of ingredients, inventing and improvising and keeping things in balance by both knowledge and instinct, they are able to use sunlight for their tanks. A total beginner would not be so successful easily for sure.

I have kept vallisneria in a sunlight tank for years, and then I was a school boy. All I had was a table lamp with an incandescent bulb, and I only switched it on when I wanted to see my fish at night Otherwise, the tank got all its light from the window it was balanced on the sill of! I remember the valliseria and amazon sword plant pearled like crazy.

But valls are easy if u keep them with only a few other species, ..... I think.

[pinaki_pal]

Here is one from my side as well.... PFB video of my low tech planted tank which thrived solely on sun light......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gW6xpMA0m0

I always kept it under defused sun light....i believe that's the reason i never had algae problem in this tank......... keeping tank in sunlight has only one major drawback as per my experience and that is u'll loose fauna ....... temp of ur tank will rise even in defused sun light n if ur tank is not big enough then most of the time u'll find dead fishes at the side of ur tank....in most of the cases high temp caused low amount of oxygen in tank resulting agitated fishes most of which will die by jumping out... that was the reason i dismantled it ....

[Naufil]

Both Syed and Kaushikda are veterans, and like good cooks that can make savoury dishes even when they don't have a lot of ingredients, inventing and improvising and keeping things in balance by both knowledge and instinct, they are able to use sunlight for their tanks

ingredients, i.e the constituents of the substrate, shimmer weed powder and sugar and spice

A total beginner would not be so successful easily for sure.

I have kept vallisneria in a sunlight tank for years, and then I was a school boy.

My gentle sir...you contradict...

I have kept vallisneria in a sunlight tank for years, and then I was a school boy. All I had was a table lamp with an incandescent bulb, and I only switched it on when I wanted to see my fish at night Otherwise, the tank got all its light from the window it was balanced on the sill of! I remember the valliseria and amazon sword plant pearled like crazy.
But valls are easy if u keep them with only a few other species, ..... I think.

Picture of perfection, we would have become friends fast if I had met you then.
Valls ....yesh I will keep that in mind.
And fish what fish lived in there?

[Naufil]

Here is one from my side as well.... PFB video of my low tech planted tank which thrived solely on sun light......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gW6xpMA0m0

Thank you for posting that link, I like your tank.

I always kept it under defused sun light....i believe that's the reason i never had algae problem in this tank......... keeping tank in sunlight has only one major drawback as per my experience and that is u'll loose fauna ....... temp of ur tank will rise even in defused sun light n if ur tank is not big enough then most of the time u'll find dead fishes at the side of ur tank....in most of the cases high temp caused low amount of oxygen in tank resulting agitated fishes most of which will die by jumping out... that was the reason i dismantled it ....

A most reasonable answer.
If you can, can you please explain to me the consequences such a tank would face in winters. Winters this year, so far has been too harsh. Temperatures went below 5*C in most of Delhi.

[Romi]

Both Syed and Kaushikda are veterans, and like good cooks that can make savoury dishes even when they don't have a lot of ingredients, inventing and improvising and keeping things in balance by both knowledge and instinct, they are able to use sunlight for their tanks

ingredients, i.e the constituents of the substrate, shimmer weed powder and sugar and spice

A total beginner would not be so successful easily for sure.

I have kept vallisneria in a sunlight tank for years, and then I was a school boy.

My gentle sir...you contradict...

I have kept vallisneria in a sunlight tank for years, and then I was a school boy. All I had was a table lamp with an incandescent bulb, and I only switched it on when I wanted to see my fish at night Otherwise, the tank got all its light from the window it was balanced on the sill of! I remember the valliseria and amazon sword plant pearled like crazy.
But valls are easy if u keep them with only a few other species, ..... I think.

Picture of perfection, we would have become friends fast if I had met you then.
Valls ....yesh I will keep that in mind.
And fish what fish lived in there?

ha ha. I do suspect that you and I are rather similar in that context, Naufil.

The fish I had were an oranda goldfish that I got after a lot of bother from Russel Market, Black Moor Goldfish, an amazing goldfish that I can never ever forget (a form of goldfish called an Eggfish and total top quality, never saw anything like that in India again), HalfBlack Guppies (I didn't appreciate them that much then, I liked brighter colours, and now I realize those were good!), two Bettas that did not fight that much (one was a gentleman, I think!), and some platies, swordtails, platinum sailfin molly female, and others that I cant remember now.

Sigh...

[Romi]

@Naufil

I agree with you that I seem to contradict myself when I say that I was a school boy then and had an aquarium that had plants growing in sunlight. ...hehe.

But it isn't true actually.

let me tell you why. I had kept aquatic plants before that also. That was when Daddy was posted in Srinagar and I got a lot of plants from the Dal lake and kept them in a large plastic jar. This jar was naturally not given any light source, being only a jar. It had Salvinia, Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum, very common in Dal lake, choking it actually), and Potamogeton crispus. The plants survived for months, and were kept with a Blue Gourami in the jar all this while. The jar was kept in a low window, and the Sun in Srinagar was not very harsh, so I didn't go wrong there. Plus I changed the water partially every week and the Gourami was very hardy and made a lot of 'fertilizer'..hehe.

So in Bangalore, I was an 'experienced' school boy when I was growing Vallisneria and Amazons in my tank. But I took my plants seriously only here in terms of knowing their names and taking pride in their growth. But I admit it, I was lazy and never did much of anything to care for my plants, it was just my luck that this approach often works for Sunlight-lit tanks.

Less is more, when it comes to Sunlight, I feel.

We should begin with a little sunlight and then gradually increase. And always be prepared for trouble in summers, taking care to note what direction the sunglight takes as seasons change, and how much it heats the water. Or forget plants, the fish will have to pay.

[syed.ali]

A most reasonable answer.
If you can, can you please explain to me the consequences such a tank would face in winters. Winters this year, so far has been too harsh. Temperatures went below 5*C in most of Delhi.

Right now how i have handled is that i have put thermacoal sheet around the tank, to reduce heat loss and safeguard from cold, I learned from another sr monty chadha. Its working, for the smaller tank.
In the bigger tank i have used heater, but in the smaller one, its 15 watt small yellow bulb, the temp is maintained at 18.

[Naufil]

I agree with you that I seem to contradict myself when I say that I was a school boy then and had an aquarium that had plants growing in sunlight...

...We should begin with a little sunlight and then gradually increase. And always be prepared for trouble in summers, taking care to note what direction the sunglight takes as seasons change, and how much it heats the water. Or forget plants, the fish will have to pay.

That was one good long post and fun to read too, filled with interesting tid-bits and that anecdote in the end about sunlight was the icing on the cake.
Thankye pal!

Right now how i have handled is that i have put thermacoal sheet around the tank, to reduce heat loss and safeguard from cold, I learned from another sr monty chadha. Its working, for the smaller tank.
In the bigger tank i have used heater, but in the smaller one, its 15 watt small yellow bulb, the temp is maintained at 18.

An excellent piece of practical information! Thank you for posting!

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I think I have enough information now to start with my own sunlight tank. I will update this thread when I will have something presentable or when I will have fresh questions to bombard you guys with hehe!

Have a nice day everyone!

[mats]

A friend of mine keeps a 5 ft tank in sunlight and no co2. Just laterite as the base.
He has artificial lighting also on the tank. And it is one of the best planted tanks I hv seen. Lives in tropical climate, so it can be done.
The tank was integrated into the wall of the house and one had to go behind the building to service the tank for all things other than feeding and cleaning the back mirror.the light used to hit the tank from the back in the mornings around 12 noon for about 2 hours
The secret for the good growth was that he would change 25% water every day using the garden hoze. He also had red plants in the tank like alternanthera (I hope the spellings are correct).
Another thing I forgot to mention that the tank was balanced on the wall with half of it projecting out of the wall both ways.
He used to use artificial lighting in the evening for about 2 hours

[Romi]

This thread has turned out very well, Naufil.

so many insights. And I am really surprised to learn from Mats that even a plant like Alternanthera did so well in that tank he described. I think there are so many different ways of keeping aquascaped tanks, and some of these ways are not about money at all. just about learning tricks and using the light coming from the window.