Using a single light with mirrors?

[Blue Meg]

I was having a bit of insomnia the other night and came up with an idea for a frag tank setup with multiple levels including auto shutoff quick disconnects and a shelf system sort of like an open file cabinet. It seemed great at 3 in the morning, but then I started thinking about lighting.

Has anyone done some sort of multiple area lighting with mirrors or fiber optics? My idea would be maybe 2’ square shelves on top of each other. But I don’t think running a bunch of lights like that is cost effective or heat effective. So, has anyone done something like this?

 

[garbled]

Problem with a mirror, is that light goes through the glass, (which absorbs some non-trivial amount), bounces off the reflective surface (which also absorbs a little) and then back through the glass again (more absorbing). You can do this once or so, but I suspect if you are trying to bounce beams all over the place it will get pretty fiddly and lossy.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Problem with a mirror, is that light goes through the glass, (which absorbs some non-trivial amount), bounces off the reflective surface (which also absorbs a little) and then back through the glass again (more absorbing). You can do this once or so, but I suspect if you are trying to bounce beams all over the place it will get pretty fiddly and lossy.

They do make mirrors where the reflective material is on the front surface so the light doesn't pass through any glass. These are common in telescopes and other precision instruments. However, these are not commodity items and would likely be as expensive as just using multiple lights.

 

[theatrus]

They do make mirrors where the reflective material is on the front surface so the light doesn't pass through any glass. These are common in telescopes and other precision instruments. However, these are not commodity items and would likely be as expensive as just using multiple lights.

Also very sensitive to anything, especially salt spray which will eat any aluminum coating.

LED assemblies can be incredibly thin, why not just use those?