What is your best method for cleaning reflectors? Or should I just replace them?

[Fishdisease]

I have an 8 bulb 80W ATI Sunpower fixture that is going on 4 years old. I am doing my bulb replacement today and the reflectors are crazy dirty, salt water spots everywhere plus a little corrosion here and there. In the other threads I've found the suggestion is soap+water to clean them. However I've found that just takes the salt off, it doesn't remove the stain from the reflector. Is there a way to "restore" the reflectors? Or do I have to buy new ones to get them back to new-ish? I understand that the corrosion is permanent but the spots are what I'm talking about.

BTW, I've had terrible experiences with this fixture, I've replaced every ballast over those 4 years and while ATI support was great, I've ended up using 3rd party ballasts as they seem to last a lot longer. Again, ATI has been very good when I contact them, but I do regret buying this particular fixture. When I can afford it I'm going to replace it, but $200 for new bulbs is better than $1500+ on new lights atm.

Cheers

 

[Scorpius]

Try using a little CLR cleaner on a paper towel.

 

[ATI North America]

The "stains" on the reflector are actually areas where the silver has been removed. You wont be able to fix this since its part of the manufacturing process. They have a very thin layer of silver which is how they get the 98% reflective surface. Once this is damaged by salt corrosion etc, it cant be repaired it requires replacement to fix.

Sorry to hear about your ballast issues, your situation sounds very unusual unless you are using this fixture in a canopy or otherwise in some manor which is causing it to get very hot. Heat kills ballasts. If you are running your fans at too low of a speed etc this can do it too.

 

[Midrats]

How do your reflectors get saltwater on them, don't you use the acrylic splash guard? Just curious :)

 

[ATI North America]

How do your reflectors get saltwater on them, don't you use the acrylic splash guard? Just curious :)

Usually there is enough salt in the air to cause damage over time, not "saltwater" but salt. This is why when you wipe down lights, walls etc near the tank they are gross. Blowing out fans for example can make them last 10x longer on an ATI light fixture. Leaving the salt on them causes the wires to literally fall off the contacts due to corrosion. Blowing out the fans, removing the salt buildup from the fan contacts greatly reduces the corrosion and thereby increases the lifespan.

You are correct though, running a fixture without a splash shield is a very bad idea. While you may get 4-5% more PAR for the moment, this will quickly be lost due to corrosion of the reflectors...