any one ever try a mirror as a reflector for light

[mojo]

I strongly suggest just buying the right reflectors. They are far better than a mirror. If you are looking to get more par from your bulbs good reflectors are teh way to go.

Reef geek sells the best reflector
then ATI
ice cap
tek

in that order

 

[Harry_Y]

i just read on another forum that white paint would work better than a mirror

I had a spare ballast so I made up a shoplight and I painted the inside
with some semi gloss white (gloss would have been better), even as
just a two tube fixture it is so bright it is uncomfortable to look at.

I had heard of a guy using mirror before but the glue he used
to secure the mirrors came loose in the heat, so if you go that
way make sure the glue can handle the heat.

 

[Troylee]

Don't bother t5s are only as good as there reflectors and if you didn't use individual reflectors you would really be waisting your time fwiw.. Flat white paint is the best diffuser.... Gloss and semigloss have a sheen where the light bounces around and waists energy by my most likely causing heat.... I had a great article on the subject I will have to find it.....

 

[Harry_Y]

Don't bother t5s are only as good as there reflectors and if you didn't use individual reflectors you would really be waisting your time fwiw.. Flat white paint is the best diffuser.... Gloss and semigloss have a sheen where the light bounces around and waists energy by my most likely causing heat.... I had a great article on the subject I will have to find it.....

Diffuser or Reflector? That is in interesting.

That being said I also just built up a light over my frag tank.
On that one I bought the reflectors.

I used the Tek Reflectors and they were around $23 each.
Not a bad price when you figure how easy they are
to install as compared to anything else.

 

[Gitsoe]

FWIW there was an episode of Mythbusters that just aired about how mirrors work with reflecting light.
the myth was to see if you can light up a room with the reflection of the sun bouncing off several mirrors and what worked best was actually a polished piece of metal not the mirror because how the beam of light spreads more when hitting something not so reflective, the mirror just shot the beam of light straight across like a laser... so im guessing it would be sort of hard to get the right angles to cover your whole tank or else maybe you will just have hot spots all over...

 

[hllywd]

I can't really think of many good reasons to use mirrors as reflectors. First they are inefficient; the reflective surface is on the rear surface, so any light must travel through the glass to the reflective surface then back through the glass in a usable direction. Someone stated rear surface mirrors are 80% efficient, I believe when this question came up on another board that number was closer to 65%. You only approach 80 - 90% with a coated front surface mirror such as a specular aluminum reflector. Mirrors are certainly more dificult to make into the correct form for an efficient reflector, and much heavier. Just lining your canopy with mirrors won't make for a good reflector, and quite possibly will be dangerous. Lastly I suspect it could be expensive to puchase the mirrors to make a reflector only to end up with an inferior finished product.

To me the trade off is this, purchase (or build) good quality, proven design reflectors, and get more light where it's supposed to be, or DIY something inferior and use higher wattage lighting to get your desired results, and pay for it the entire life of your system.

 

[hllywd]

FWIW there was an episode of Mythbusters that just aired about how mirrors work with reflecting light.
the myth was to see if you can light up a room with the reflection of the sun bouncing off several mirrors and what worked best was actually a polished piece of metal not the mirror because how the beam of light spreads more when hitting something not so reflective, the mirror just shot the beam of light straight across like a laser... so im guessing it would be sort of hard to get the right angles to cover your whole tank or else maybe you will just have hot spots all over...

Appropriate reflectors do the same thing they demonstrated, that's why reflectors have many facets, and sometimes are textured to even out the light distribution. Jamie standing in the beam with the white shirt demonstrated the diffusion characteristics of a white surface, not that his shirt was neccessarily a good reflector, but it scattered the beam lighting up the room. They could have as well lit the room with a multifaceted reflector placed in the path of the sunbeam.