Reflective mirror tape on light shades

[bagelsd88]

I was just wondering if anyone has tried putting reflective mirror tape on 3d printed shades? Did it raise your par or lower it. Par reading are perfect for my acros but I’m tired of the light spill lighting my whole house up. Does anyone know if the still fit on the radions if they have the side blade lights. I’m hoping the reflective tape will boost enough to be able to get rid of the blades

 

[Dfost]

I don't think that is will change anything other than possibly adding a very small amount of spread. will likely be negligible.

 

[bagelsd88]

I don't think that is will change anything other than possibly adding a very small amount of spread. will likely be negligible.

Ok thank you I always like to find as much info as possible before diving into something but haven’t found too much on this topic. I’ve done things twice or 3 times too many times lol

 

[Dfost]

If your concerned about light spill you could always build or have someone build a canopy for you that would help a ton!

 

[bagelsd88]

If your concerned about light spill you could always build or have someone build a canopy for you that would help a ton!

I’m quite handy I have thought about building one the light spill bothers me a little it’s more my girl that is the complainer. I do wonder what the neighbors think with the whole house glowing blue. . I wouldn’t be in the predicament if I just got some xr30s instead of 15 I’d have plenty of room to adjust with shades

 

[Dfost]

I totally get it mine blinds me on the couch but I just deal with it lol.

 

[fish_collector]

Reefis have very little light spill, outperform a Radion and are half the price with a 3 year warranty.

 

[mcarroll]

I was just wondering if anyone has tried putting reflective mirror tape on 3d printed shades? Did it raise your par or lower it. Par reading are perfect for my acros but I’m tired of the light spill lighting my whole house up. Does anyone know if the still fit on the radions if they have the side blade lights. I’m hoping the reflective tape will boost enough to be able to get rid of the blades

Usually "a lot" of light spill indicates your lights are mounted a bit too high.

If I recall correctly, your lights have approximatley 90º lenses. If so, the mounting height should be about 1/2 the shortest side of your tank.....minus any filtration compartments; just the display area.

So if your tank has a 36" x 18" surface area, you'd want your light around 9" from the water surface....make final adjustments from there.

That should get >98% of the light into the tank vs in your room.

If you want, post a pic of the system and lighting and maybe some more suggestions can be made.

 

[bagelsd88]

I was just wondering if anyone has tried putting reflective mirror tape on 3d printed shades? Did it raise your par or lower it. Par reading are perfect for my acros but I’m tired of the light spill lighting my whole house up. Does anyone know if the still fit on the radions if they have the side blade lights. I’m hoping the reflective tape will boost enough to be able to get rid of the blades

Usually "a lot" of light spill indicates your lights are mounted a bit too high.

If I recall correctly, your lights have approximatley 90º lenses. If so, the mounting height should be about 1/2 the shortest side of your tank.....minus any filtration compartments; just the display area.

So if your tank has a 36" x 18" surface area, you'd want your light around 9" from the water surface....make final adjustments from there.

That should get >98% of the light into the tank vs in your room.

If you want, post a pic of the system and lighting and maybe some more suggestions can be made.

My lights are 7 inches from the water using the radion brackets and my short side is 19. When my lights kick on I’ll add a pic. It’s a 4 foot tank running 4 radions and 2 12 in blades. The highest par I get in one spot is 400 but most is running between 240 to 365 just checked par again yesterday.

 

[bagelsd88]

I was just wondering if anyone has tried putting reflective mirror tape on 3d printed shades? Did it raise your par or lower it. Par reading are perfect for my acros but I’m tired of the light spill lighting my whole house up. Does anyone know if the still fit on the radions if they have the side blade lights. I’m hoping the reflective tape will boost enough to be able to get rid of the blades

Usually "a lot" of light spill indicates your lights are mounted a bit too high.

If I recall correctly, your lights have approximatley 90º lenses. If so, the mounting height should be about 1/2 the shortest side of your tank.....minus any filtration compartments; just the display area.

So if your tank has a 36" x 18" surface area, you'd want your light around 9" from the water surface....make final adjustments from there.

That should get >98% of the light into the tank vs in your room.

If you want, post a pic of the system and lighting and maybe some more suggestions can be made.

The lights can’t be evenly placed either the overflow box screws me I’ve been thinking of getting a mounting bar to get past the uneven distance

 

[mcarroll]

The lights can’t be evenly placed either the overflow box screws me I’ve been thinking of getting a mounting bar to get past the uneven distance

As you are aware, that's a lot of lighting!

Due to the outside units being too close to the edge, you will have to mount them much closer to the water in order to stop the light bill… Or rig some type of lightshade on the ends.

You've already got all these lights so this is just ideas… But really for this much light it would be more convenient to have just two XR 30s... or another larger solution.

Having them all mounted on a bar might help, but I'm not sure if it will get the edge units far enough in before you are basically on top of the inside units.

Any way you can scale back to just three lights? Ie. would it give you better placement options on the edges without too much compromise on total light? (In theory it seems like there should be plenty of room to drop light levels if you desired to do so.)

 

[bagelsd88]

The lights can’t be evenly placed either the overflow box screws me I’ve been thinking of getting a mounting bar to get past the uneven distance

As you are aware, that's a lot of lighting!

Due to the outside units being too close to the edge, you will have to mount them much closer to the water in order to stop the light bill… Or rig some type of lightshade on the ends.

You've already got all these lights so this is just ideas… But really for this much light it would be more convenient to have just two XR 30s... or another larger solution.

Having them all mounted on a bar might help, but I'm not sure if it will get the edge units far enough in before you are basically on top of the inside units.

Any way you can scale back to just three lights? Ie. would it give you better placement options on the edges without too much compromise on total light? (In theory it seems like there should be plenty of room to drop light levels if you desired to do so.)

I am getting shades for the edge the left and right which I think will cut down. if I’m down to 3 xr15 and blades I’m barely getting 260 to 275 in the higher spots the highest I can get is about 290 in the front middle near the glass. Being sps dominant mixed I will go with the 30s from now on I’d rather dial down then have to run at 100 just to get levels I need. One of those bought with doing research but not enough in depth. I’m still trying to fix the newbie mistakes I’m about 13 months into saltwater did freshwater for 20 years before though. I might save for 30s and sell off the 15s