Natural Light and new tank location

I'm in the planning stages for a new 265 gal tank that will go in a garage that is being converted to living space. The 'easy' location for the tank is along the south wall close to the west facing glass doors that will take the place of the existing 8'x9' garage door. I'm already planning on having a chiller to help keep the temperature under control with planned three 400 W MH lamps.

How much trouble am I asking for by having the tank close to a large expanse of west facing glass? Are the challenges only related to temperature control or will face additional headaches from algae just because of sun exposure?

The over-the-top option that I have considered is to place the tank in the center of the room and run my plumbing (for water change draining & RO top up) up through a column and then across the ceiling. The tank would look very dramatic in the center of the room but my wife isn't keen on how it woud disrupt traffic flow through the room. Any and all thoughts are appreciated.

 

You will certainly get some algae and a temp increase but it may not be that great on a tank that size. Or maybe I should say, it would take time to heat up the water in a tank that size and with the chiller and the sun going down it could work out.
My last tank got late afternoon sun and the corals seemed to love that actually.

How close to the window are we talking about? (I will be out for a couple days but check back - hopefully someone else can help in the meantime.)

 

You know I did not think about it But if you are building this might want to look in to the Solar Light Tubes we use a few at the shop its pure bright white Sunshine that is refracted and sent to the tank on a average day it right with a 250 HQI per the meter, Has a proper lens covering on top super bright on really sunny days I posted some photo's of them last summer or fall on here somewhere maybe a search will show you how they light up the 200 tank. When I move back to Va and build a new home I'll be using these where the tanks will be set up at.

 

Here you go

http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-lighting/solar-tubes-action-39352.html

 

Funny I had thought about those too when I was writing that. Since it's in the garage and easy to get to the ceiling/roof (assumption) that could work out nice and you might have a DIY tube opportunity if it's a straight shot down perhaps.

 

If your worried about light coming through the window, ever think about shades/curtains/blinds to keep the sun out during that part of the day?

 

My nano is about 5' from a 8' sliding glass door that lets in a ton of light, I put a set of blackout curtains behind the normal ones and they do a great job

When I had it open to natural lighting I had really bad film algae problems, it'd have to be wiped down like 3x a day to stay clean

Now with those curtains I wipe down the glass about once a week

black out curtain : Target Search Results

We just went with some white ones and put normal curtains in front for looks