Diy Canopy Reflector Questions

nguyendetecting

"Swim along with the snorks"
Jul 31, 2008
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Most of us have made diy lights/canopys and most of the time we paint the back white as a reflective material. Or use a shiny metal type reflector. Has anyone used mirrors?? Or is that too much reflection?? I'm sure someone has tried it.

Any tips would be great! I am making a diy canopy for my 55 in the next few wks and was wondering on what to do. Thanks all
 
Funny but I had the same thought....to me the problem here is the angle of reflection...the question I kept asking myself is how would I be able to refract lost light back into the aquarium....after some debate I trashed the idea feeling that the amount lost was not worth the trouble....I mean think about what we loose putting light into an all glass aquarium.....if you try it let me know how it works
 
What is a mirror but a piece of glass with reflective backing? You always lose some light through glass so your hoping to gain light by sending it through the glass to the reflective material and then back out again? At least light bouncing off an all white surface or metallic surface does so at one angle, but coming through glass it can go any number of ways. Not that it's a bad idea, but as Leolion66 said, it's not worth the trouble.
 
the problem with a mirrored reflector is that it really needs to be parabolic to get its full effect. Just a flat mirror isn't any better than plain white.
 
cool, thanks for the input guys. I've used krylon white stuff in the past with good results. But this time on my diy canopy I have the room to put mirrors behind the lights. And The mirrors were left by my old roommate. They are 10x10 little square mirrors that he hung on his room wall with double sided tape.
 
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