diy t5ho canopy with diy reflectors

[jcarbomb]

i used 2 2x54watt hagen glo ballasts. The rest of the build excluding bulbs is all homemade.




aluminum sheeting (i bent and polished to shape)



shape of reflectors

[jcarbomb]

assembled reflector rack



rough canopy








finished canopy 1(no light) 2-3 (2 bulbs on 10,000 and actinic)
(there are only 2 bulbs until my next 2 come in the mail)




with canopy open

PM me with any questions

[jcarbomb]

any advice or comments are appreciated

[wbdevers]

Looks very good and really clean. What size is your tank? Also, what brand and combo of bulbs are you using? With my four bulbs and the indi Hagen reflectors I'm getting 500 PAR at the top center of my tank.

[gsiebrecht]

what kind of sockets did you use?
how many gallons is the tank?

[jcarbomb]

Its a 55gallon, im using zoomed 10,000k and actinic bulbs. The hagen ballasts come with sockets so they might be sold individually by hagen, not sure though.

[wbdevers]

I've used Hagen Marine-Glo and Power-Glo bulbs. I've also used ZooMed's purple bulbs (don't remember the name), but now I'm using ATI bulbs. I really like the bulbs but they are a lot hotter and the blue color is kind of washed out. Regardless, my PAR reading is500 at the top of my tank which is also a 55.

Best of luck.

[ZPavDesign]

Looks good man, Wish I woulda did a diy instead of buying a fixture lol. Woulda saved some green that way. :P.

[BeanAnimal]

Originally Posted by jcarbomb

any advice or comments are appreciated

While you have embarked on a noble effort, the basic problem is the DIY reflectors. The primary benefit of a T5 bulb is its narrow envelope and the fact that highly optimized individual reflectors can be used over each bulb.

While the commercial SLR reflectors don't appear to be anything special, they are in fact rather optimized both with regard to shape and finish. DIYing something that looks like an SLR is only going to yield marginal results compared to the real thing. That is, your DIY reflectors may only be half as efficient as the real thing and therefore only put half of the usable light into the tank compared to the real thing. This is due to the fact that your reflective material and the shape are not optimized to move the light from the sides and back of the bulb to the water surface with as few reflections and as little scatter as possible.

You would much further ahead to purchase real reflectors.

[jjmccloud2011]

WOW!!!! A bit rude maybe??? He never said or acted like they were as good or better (which I may believe they could be) he simply wanted to show off his work which is very nice by the way so with that said I like those reflectors and think you will greatly benifit from them versus a single reflector for all of them very nice job looks great!!!! I'm gonna do the same thing or try anyways lol thx for sharing with us I may look back on this when I go to upgrade my lighting

[BeanAnimal]

The thread you have dredged up is nearly 2 years old (I assume you are trying to reach 50 posts or whatever it is). In any case, the OP posted a project in a public DIY forum and directly asked for feedback regarding his project. My feedback was kind, factual, informative and far from rude. The goal (of many) in this community is to share knowledge and experience and help each other separate opinion from fact so that we can all learn from each other and further the collective knowledge in the hobby.

[jimmyj7090]

The irony is that Bean's post is actually all the more helpful to the rest of the world now that this thread has been bumped up and anyone considering a similar DIY reflector is more likely to find this in their research AND see Bean's feedback.

There is a big difference between being "rude", and offering solid info that might sting a little due to the facts involved

[crazylawyer]

While I agree with the Animal's FIRST post, I think it's important to recognize that tests posted on this site have demonstrated that not all "off the rack" reflectors are created equal. Moreover, even the best reflector designs are often compromised by DIYer's when they are unable to obtain correct tube- to- reflector distance (stand-off height)

Given the ridiculous price of even inefective commercial reflectors, I'd certainly try my hand at bending one up, maybe copying the angles from a proven "ready made" model. Some on this site who possses the mental horsepower which I lack could even calculate their own- perhaps superior - design. A box and pan brake (a bending machine) can be built by anyone who has the wood working skills to build a canopy.

I am pretty sure that my DIY T5 rack is not living up to its full potential, as the previous owner-builder probably used a less then perfect standoff height. I've heard no complaints from my coral, and this "compromised" rig is putting out more light than the cheap smokin' and shockin' commercial fixtures I have burned through.

Jcarbomb's innovative approach of bending and joining two halves to make a reflector makes building them at home at lot easier for the DIYer with limited access to materials and tools. I for one had not thought of that approach, and its this type of DIY inventivness that moves the hobby forward. Perhaps if someone could post the angles on a proven reflector design, we could inspire the manufacturers to bring their prices for the ready-mades down to a reasonable level.

And for those counting "post credits", I should get double points just for for word count.

[jimmyj7090]

Well FWIW if there is a discussion to be had on DIY T5 reflectors, I will suggest looking at the parabolic shape of most of the good commercially made ones.