Mirror For Reflector?

[Tosh_Auer]

Is it possible to use a mirror in the top of your canopy for a reflector? I have never heard of anyone trying it and it made pretty good sense to me so i figured i'd ask.

Tosh

[Casey]

Welcome to TRT mate! Glad ya found us.I have never used a mirror not sure how it would hold up with the heat from the MHS and if you accidently drop the hood or bump it to hard could be a mess.

[Tosh_Auer]

Yeah i guess taht a valid point. Ill give it a go when it comes to making the canopy and see what happens i guess.

[MiddletonMark]

Two issues with it:

It's glass .... weight is a big issue. As would be worry over breaking ... and you do know that the backing that makes the glass a mirror will degrade over time.

Loss of light. The reflector in a mirror is really at the very back of the glass ... so the light is going thru the glass twice on reflector = loss of intensity. A polished aluminum reflector has no 1/4" or so of glass to go thru.

Maybe not a huge issue ... but given mirrors are flat [not the most efficient reflector design] and you lose intensity by running light through the glass twice .... then the other worries start to weigh things down IMO.

I'd check out www.advancedaquarist.com - March 2003 and some other archived articles by Sanjay Joshi on reflectors. I believe his work suggested a good reflector will give 20-30% more light than using something else.

My 2 cents.

[SaltyMist]

I asked this question on another forum and the response I got was the a mirror is less reflective then simple white paint. I dont remember where that post was posted, but it linked to some information on the web about the reflective properties of different items, like mirrors, white paint, aluminum, polished aluminum, and some kind of dimply type of aluminum.

I am opting for white paint once I get off my butt and go buy the wood to actualy build my hood.