Aluminum foil light reflector?

[hdtran]

Has anyone stapled or taped aluminum foil inside their canopy (between canopy & VHO bulbs) as a poor person's reflector?

Any comments about this idea, or am I all wet?

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

It works, but its not great. People also use mylar and a simple nice white paint.

 

[hdtran]

Thanks for the quick reply! I was familiar with white paint, but didn't want to deal with the mess (and the fact that you need to sand the wood before painting). I thought taped foil would be a 15 minute job, as opposed to paint, which is a 1 hr job + 4 hrs between coats.

 

[Anonymous]

Foil works better than white paint and mylar, but once you got salt on it, it just crumbles and turn into flakes over times.... speaking from experience here!

 

[liquid]

I've heard of people getting aluminum flashing from Home Depot and buffing it with jeweler's rouge to really make it shine. That might be a better option.

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

My opinion is that buffing it will give it better spectularity (mirror-like or whatever that's called), but it does not increase the amount of light it reflect to much extent.... again, may need to check my opinion...

 

[liquid]

Yeah that's what I was wondering too. I'd love to see anything you could find on that LOULE as I'm considering making my own Lumenarc III reflector.

Shane

 

[hdtran]

I'm using the URI bulbs with the built-in reflector. I really don't need better reflectivity; I just want to protect the wood behind the bulb quickly and cheaply. I thought aluminum was fairly corrosion resistant, but I guess not as much as I thought :?

Ahh well... I'll live with foil until I add more bulbs to the tank, then, it's time to wheel out the plasma spray 8)

 

[kwyjibo]

Damn, I was hoping that aluminum foil would do it.
I hear platinum is pretty tough to oxidize

Well, when I made my radioshack LED moonlight, I took apart an free mini-maglite flashlight and pulled out the reflector.
While it works "better" with the reflector, I find that I am still not getting the focused beam I was anticipating.
I have a 75gal oceanic tank and the moonlight sits on the left side of the tank(just a little bit infront of the overflow) where it is angling down about 15 degrees.
It does well illuminating the left and middle sections of the tank, but much of the light is wasted on the surrounding area outside of the tank. I guess this is just one of the consequences of trying to get a moonbeam shooting across your tank.

 

[hfmann]

Just thinking out loud here because I haven't tried it. But wondering if that foil tape used in the HVAC trade to seal ducting would work. That stuff seems pretty durable!

Hal
_________________
grapefruit pics

 

[Anonymous]

> ...I thought aluminum was fairly corrosion resistant...

Yeah, aluminum by itself is one of the most reactive metal, like titanium. It is the protective oxide in the case of aluminum and titanium that give it the desired property.

liquid, I am going to check in the issue of reflectivity, but my gut feeling is that it is the same for both types of surface.

 

[Quigonsean]

I've heard of people using that chrome tape with decent results. My lazy poor butt just used Chrome paint on the inside of my home made lighting rig.

Sean

 

[Danno]

I went to local sheet metel store and bought polished Stainless Steel for about $25 and bent my own. It's going on 2years now, I just clean with glass cleaner every so often.