MH reflector question

Fishy888 · Dec 29, 2022

All things being equal would a polished reflector outperform one that isn’t?

I just got a high bay light. The reflector is aluminum. It’s not polished. I can polish it though since I have the tools to do so. Before I start polishing though I want to make sure polishing it won’t make things worse.

I really like this fixture. It’s built like a tank. When I examined the capacitor and housing they looked like new. There was not a chip of paint or rust in the housing and the capacitor looked like new. I need to test it still. Because this fixture is so well built and the reflector is the perfect size for my cube I am going to use it. I am happy to modify the dome reflector and anything that will help me to SAFELY increase the par of this fixture. Thank you for your help.

PaulErik · Dec 29, 2022

The reflector on a high bay fixture is already a narrower beam fixture. It’s designed to be mounted at higher ceiling heights. Polishing the metal reflector will most likely cause larger hot spots of light (uneven spread) and could creat a more focused beam of light. Plus when you polish the metal you remove the protective coating making the reflector oxidize rapidly.

In some applications those fixtures can work for aquariums but the biggest problem is the bulb is set vertically usually. Most bulbs for reef aquariums are optimized and only rated for horizontal use.

Fishy888 · Dec 29, 2022

Thank you for letting me know that. I’ll leave it unpolished then. I did find a lamp that I can use vertically since I knew that would be an issue.It’s a 6000K lamp. I’m going to run T5s also to supplement it.

Fishy888 · Dec 30, 2022

Fishy888 said:
Thank you for letting me know that. I’ll leave it unpolished then. I did find a lamp that I can use vertically since I knew that would be an issue.It’s a 6000K lamp. I’m going to run T5s also to supplement it.

I also forgot to mention that I have some horizontal reflectors on watch currently in case I don’t like the dome reflector.