Plant growing tank in full sun?

[Doug Sykes]

Hi, following on from my first post a few weeks ago, think I can loose my title of "qualified plant killer".
My plants are surviving. Think thriving is going a bit far, but I'll take surviving as a huge promotion.
Well since then, I've acquired another two tanks (not sure when I need to book myself into rehab, addiction is certainly getting hold) and I'm still unsure what to do with them.
Artificial is an option for the larger tank, need to check again, but think it's in the 60litre area. It has a fixed solid lid and no light.
But I'm thinking I could put it in front of my south facing window, and at least temporarily use it to grow live plants under natural light, before harvesting the plants to bulk up my larger tank.
I know windows are not recommended, for algae reasons, and fish sunburn etc. So was thinking of snails, a few corydora fish, shrimp, basically algae eaters. Enough to stop me overloading with algae, but hopefully growing a good crop of plants I could transplant.
Plan was to put the tank and water in position with a thermometer to guage water temperatures.
Maybe window tint to keep the worst of the glare out?
Any thoughts?
Potentially viable? Or non starter?

 

[ScareCrow]

I've been considering a similar thing but I'd be careful with which species of fish you select, if you decide to keep fish at all.
Does the room temp fluctuate much during hot/sunny periods? This should be considered when selecting species.
Corydoras don't eat algae, they're predominantly carnivorous but may eat small organisms that live on algae/biofilm. Also they won't appreciate the bright direct sunlight.
For tank janitors, something like Asellus aquaticus are quite good as they seem to be able to take a fairly wide range of temperatures.
My intention was to fit a blind between the window and tank, that way I can adjust the amount of light entering the tank.

 

[Myrtle]

I have a shrimp tank on a south facing windowsill and it is an absolute algae farm lol. I regularly have to block the back with polystyrene to prevent overheating. Personally, with the fluctuations in temperature, especially in summer, I'd not put any fish in, but the shrimp have managed well. Mine is only 25 litres so easy to move to a cooler location if necessary, but with a larger tank this would be a bit impractical.

 

[Doug Sykes]

I have a shrimp tank on a south facing windowsill and it is an absolute algae farm lol. I regularly have to block the back with polystyrene to prevent overheating. Personally, with the fluctuations in temperature, especially in summer, I'd not put any fish in, but the shrimp have managed well. Mine is only 25 litres so easy to move to a cooler location if necessary, but with a larger tank this would be a bit impractical.

Heat is a concern, I planned on setting it up with only water and checking temperatures, it might be too hot. Yeah, it's going to be too large to move easily. I do have a 32 litre tank, the one with the built in heater and filter in the rear compartment, which is an option. Decent built in light too, could use that as a plant farm instead.
Could go back to plan A using the bigger tank as an artificial set up, where I wouldn't have to worry about lighting, with the larger tank not having a light in it.
I'm still undecided, just thought I'd look for opinions

 

[Doug Sykes]

I've been considering a similar thing but I'd be careful with which species of fish you select, if you decide to keep fish at all.
Does the room temp fluctuate much during hot/sunny periods? This should be considered when selecting species.
Corydoras don't eat algae, they're predominantly carnivorous but may eat small organisms that live on algae/biofilm. Also they won't appreciate the bright direct sunlight.
For tank janitors, something like Asellus aquaticus are quite good as they seem to be able to take a fairly wide range of temperatures.
My intention was to fit a blind between the window and tank, that way I can adjust the amount of light entering the tank.

I wasn't planning on putting fish in, just thinking of keeping algae in check. I thought Cory's ate algae, I have half a dozen in my main tank as cleaners. As long as they had enough shade, once I had a fairly thick plant growth I thought they'd be ok. I have a few snails in main tank, but thought of shrimp for algae eaters.
Thanks for your comments

 

[PARAGUAY]

Specifically for algae Ottocinclus and Siamese Algae Eaters. ,Cory's will take some but mainly take greens in food with protein added or fresh veg but what they are good at is keeping substrate, sand,clean by moving sifting it at feeding times, it's a good idea to shade with net curtain or similar for a full sun window, l can recall a shop with a space issue all tanks in front of window ,little algae looking pristine but suspect it wasn't a south facing one