since sun light is the strongest light

It's a great idea- however, remember that in the ocean, coral reefs sit well below your typical 6-18" below water level, that you would keep them in, in your aquarium. In the ocean, the first few feet of water absorbs most of the lower spectrum lighting, allowing the higher spectrum (10k-20k Kelvin) to hit the corals and other reef inverts. So theoretically, if you were to do this, you may need an aquarium at least 6 feet high and 4-6 feet of water from the nearest coral to the sides where light would ALSO be penetrating. Aside from the lighting issue, you have filtration- The ocean is a HUGE vast amount of water, only a very small fraction of a percentage houses coral reefs. The rest is filled with rock, plants, algae, microorganisms, and other inhabitants that make the filtration system work astonishingly well (it's taken roughly 3 billion years to perfect it). With the amount of filtration equipment you'd need to be running to help counterbalance the red spectrum lighting which would in turn cause the worst algae bloom known to modern aquaria, it'd be worth it to buy some 400w MH's instead. Then you must also take into the fact that tropical waters, where reefs develop, are sitting in the sunniest parts of the world- which are the primary determining factor for how well your coral will grow. The likelyhood of your area's solar hours being able to support them is probably pretty low. Then we have temperature- the ocean is well know for staying a very very consistent temperature seasonally- a temperature that not even a 300 gallon aquarium would be able to hold throughout a colder night.....

Fact is, without going on anymore about all these facts.... the aquarium hobby was a hobby built indoors... with equipment made specifically for the indoors. That includes aquarium shapes and sizes, filtration, lighting, and any other odds and ends. Recently, we have made attempts to become more in touch with using natural sources to benefit our aquariums- such as refugiums and using live plants and algae to reduce unwanted substances in our aquariums. Unfortunately, we are just not at that stage that supports using the sun as a natural source of aquarium lighting.

 

i would put my equipment in my tuff shed in my back yard and i ll cover my aquarium in harsh weather conditions

 

I'm digging for them, but I remember reading over a really good thread on greenhouse fragging on RC. IIRC the biggest challenges ended up being keeping the tank cool and condensation inside the greenhouse. The whole thing was done in a kiddie pool with the purpose of using as little power as possible. In the end he still needed to bring corals inside to color up after grow out. I don't remember algae being a huge issue, but I could be mistaken.

 

this is pretty cool idea you guys got to admit hahaha

 

people use natural sunlight at times. There are threads on RC where people have somehow built tubes up to their roof and did this and that. (far beyone what I even wanna know) It is possible and direct sunlight is the best light but there are a lot of battles to fight. Just get a good MH fixture and call it good.