confused on mh info

[reefmut]

I know I recently asked this question on this post but A good freind of mine that owns one of the lfs assures me that I should be fine.. My delima is that i just upgraded to 2 250 w metal halides to go along with my 2 110w vho actinics. I planned to put a mirror in the top of my canaopy as the reflector. The responses on this post suggested because of the heat the mirror could possibly break.. I did in that post neglect to say that i already have 2 3" electric fans mounted in the canopy. One pulling air in across the first mh lamp and the second pulling the air out of the canopy across the 2nd mh lamp. I am currently able to maintain temps between 75-78 f.... Again what are your thoughts on the mirror as a reflector??

 

[Anonymous]

It'll definitely reflect light, but personally, I'd feel more comfortable with a metal reflector. Even if heat isn't an issue, it's still something that you could break pretty easily. Most people use metal simply because it's cheap.

Ty

 

[freedom75]

reefmut

Mirroro will crack under that kind of heat not to mention the reflectors you get now will reflect almost all of the light down where the mirror is not curved to reflect down so the light is not going to be reflect down but out in all directions

John Wray
[email protected]

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

The mirror is going to crack - you can test this yourself by installing the mirror and then running the lights for a few hours away from the tank (to make it easier to clean up the mess).

I have read that mirrors are not particularly efficent at refelcting light anyway. This makes sense to me since, even if the refelctive background was 100% efficent, the light still has to pass through the glass of the mirror twice. Each pass is going to lose you something like 5% - 10$% of the intensity, so you're down 10% - 20% on just using the reflecting background that the mirror uses.

 

[chns0289]

If you are really interested in having a mirror-like reflector then get an acrylic one. I have had one for over a year and it hasn't cracked. BTW, I got it from an acrylic wholesaler here in Toronto. It looks like any glass mirror with the same reflective material but it is flexible. I am running 2x175, 1x400, and 2x55 watt PCs.

 

[mariner]

Go to Home Depot and buy a sheet of sheet metal. A 24'x36" is around 5 bucks. Then, go and purchase some Brasso metal polish. Polish the sheet metal about 5 times with this stuff. Wax it with some car polish if you want to.(If you have an air grinder with a cloth buffer to fit on it or a disk sander for a drill that you could wrap a small towel onto, it'll work even better) It'll look just like what you would buy at any reef shop when finished. Cut it down with tin snips to the proper size and bend using a ruler or some straight edge against it to the shape you want it. Trust me, I did it today and it works!

[ February 26, 2002: Message edited by: mariner ]</p>