Really good question/ maybe been discussed before?

[Louie3]

:unsure Would natural sunlight be enough to sustain lighting in a aquarium?
Just a random question that popped into my head when I saw the big window in my room and the aquarium on the opposite wall. :P

[MattK]

It would if it received sunlight throughout the day, not just 3hrs in the morning or evening.

It's been happening for millions of years (or thousands if you're really religious). ;)

[Louie3]

Everyday a pull up the blinds to light up my room and I can say its pretty bright all day. I would get the most light durring the morning and least after 3 or 4. well it was just a random thought!

[mathias]

its all about angles to.... if its just one side everything is going to grow towards that side.... for best results it be from topdown setup a aquarium on the porch :) with one big chiller :) and a heater for the cold week.....

[Louie3]

Would I realy need a chiller I could put it in the backyard (we face the bay 50-75yrds from the waters edge) And its fairly windy

[mathias]

I would get a 55gal tank set it up and see what happens :) you can be our test subject....

and imagine if you spring a leak or flood nothing gets soaked....

only thing that might mess with something is rain water....

[Louie3]

yeah thats true but hell we rarely get rain!! but when we do its hard. I might want to do this durring the summer when I can observe full time.

[Hotrod32487]

I dont think that would work. In the ocean the corals get sunlight 12 hours a day? That would be possible if you had the tank in the middle of your yard but then rain would be an issue unless you rigged up some kind of retractable awning i guess. Then keeping the tank at the correct temperature, birds, squirrels, 30 degree days etc Maybe in a greenhouse with windows all around?

[Louie3]

I can always put some eggcrate overthe tank to keep the occasonal gull away. I dont have to worry about squirrels.And it would only get cold durring the winter maybe 55 the lowest.

[captexas]

I believe the aquarium in Hawaii has their tanks outdoors from the pictures I have seen of it. I'd be interested to see how they do it.

[Shark_Bait]

There was a post on here a little while back about a guy building a 4,000 Gal aquarium in his back yard. He (this is funny) supplemented the sun with light.

[Louie3]

yeah I remember that but huh I dont think a high school student can afford a 4000 gallon tank!

[urban79]

ya but have you ever look at a coral in are lights and then say a frag of it in a bag under sun light always looks brownish. .

[reeferRob]

then........OH HAIL!! I had fast pitch softballs comming down one year and the water in my pool was jump 4 or 5 ft in the air........good thing pools aren't glass :lol

[erikharrison]

If you took an upside down V shaped piece of plastic you could divert the rain. The higher up the smaller the piece. I know that this is not a perfect solution, but I thought it may help get the ball rolling.

[mathias]

I wonder how quickly rain water could mess up the salinity.....

[Ram_Puppy]

I remember seeing a guy on reefcentral that was propogating coral in a greenhouse, and i remember thinking how bland it all looked, from seeing the original frags to what happened in the greenhouse bleah... i just didn't like it... the colors didn't come out.

another thing to think about is the average depth of a reef under the sun.

[MikeP]

Can work really well as a supplement but unless its in a covered , climate controlled enviroment like a greenhouse its going to be too iffy overall.

If I were building a house I'd consider Solatubes as supplemental reeflighting or build the reef in a sun room.