How much does acrylic affect lighting?

JAMSOURY · May 31, 2017

I have a tank with acrylic bracing on top as pictured below, any idea how much this affects lighting for a reef tank?

Or since it's transparent it'll be fine?

40B Knasty · May 31, 2017

From my what I have heard acrylic with light trying to penetrate through can lose up to 40-70% of it value. More on the high end if it is not scrapped and kept clean of salt and what lights you are using. I would imagine LEDs being the least. Glass is in the 10-30%.

Shaddow_wolf169 · May 31, 2017

All depends how clean you keep it I know with my glass brace if I pull my corals out from under it they seem to get affected by more light.

saltyfilmfolks · May 31, 2017

Grab a lux meter. That will tell you instantly and exactly.

It will depend mainly on how clear it is yes. But the actuall loss with new acrylic is minimal. It does have a slightly higher refraction than glasss, but again minimal.

In a way it's actully desirable with a lot of leds. It'll diffuse and spred the light. Reducing disco and getting better wrap and spread.

I have 3 sanded acrylic panes on my 3 ai sol's in my 55g. It's a heavy diffusion but the ais are still only at 65% at peak.

saltyfilmfolks · May 31, 2017

And if you lose say 6000 lux from your pane of acrylic that's around 100 par.

Devide lux number by 6o or 75 for most leds btw.

With most leds you actually won't have an even spread at the very top any way.

JAMSOURY · May 31, 2017

saltyfilmfolks said:
Grab a lux meter. That will tell you instantly and exactly.

It will depend mainly on how clear it is yes. But the actuall loss with new acrylic is minimal. It does have a slightly higher refraction than glasss, but again minimal.

In a way it's actully desirable with a lot of leds. It'll diffuse and spred the light. Reducing disco and getting better wrap and spread.

I have 3 sanded acrylic panes on my 3 ai sol's in my 55g. It's a heavy diffusion but the ais are still only at 65% at peak.

Awesome, I'll have to look into leds and test it out with the Lux meter as you said.