Canopy insides.. Best reflect

bobothewizard

bobothewizard

Member
Me and the wife just made a canopy this weekend out of pine. Very nice wood. We have a retrofit halide systems to go into it but we were wondering what type of reflective material is the best and where should it be placed. This is not including the reflector that comes with the retrofit system. Im talking about all inside the canopy.
Thanks
 
steamboat1569

steamboat1569

Member
any highly polishished, reflective, non coroding material will work. Aluminum is good, as is a good grade of stainless steel.
Beware of low grade stainless. anything in the 400 series of stainless will rust. get 309 stainless or better.
 
steamboat1569

steamboat1569

Member
Actually, that is what I have come to use. It is 85% reflective, (not as good as retail reflectors). but one hell of a lot cheaper. Most metals will corode in some form, no matter how highly polished and corosian resistant. Salt is corosive even with the best of materials. I will probably get a lot of flack for saying this, but aluminum foil is easily replaced and does a good job in my tank. it will not, however, insulate your wood to reduce fire hazzard.
 
bobothewizard

bobothewizard

Member
Hmm, thats something to think about also. We put 2, 4 1/2" fans in there and i really do not thing the MH lights will be on for more then 6 hours at night when we are home. Im just curious though how great of a fire risk are we talking about when putting these things in our canopy.
 
kpogue

kpogue

Member
I don't know what the real name for it is but on my 30 gal I used a refective tape. They use it for duct work. Works great and cheap! For my 150 I had a custom reflector made for only $38. 24 x 72". They did a great job and I am very happy w/ it.
 
steamboat1569

steamboat1569

Member
Yes, I have used this tape also. I don't know the manufacurer, but it is Duct Tape. The original. It is an aluminum, highly reflective tape. It is made out of actual aluminum and will stick on pretty much anything. I may still have some in the garage, but may take some time to locate. I'll get back to you on it.
 
bobothewizard

bobothewizard

Member
haha nah i wouldnt worry about it. Thanks though. Wife emailed me back saying she wants to do it with aluminum foil.. Go figure
 
kpogue

kpogue

Member
The tape is smooth and has a polished reflective look. Whereas foil will crumple and diffuse the light. You will have have far better results with the tape. Tell you what to do (lol)....get the tape and the foil, let her see for herself which one looks better. When she picks the tape, tell her what a great choice she made and you couldn't have done it w/o her!!!
 
steamboat1569

steamboat1569

Member
I have heard of this also. Seems that people like it. But for MH power, it would seem to heat up and peel. What do you think?
 
shadow678

shadow678

Member
If you wish to paint it, and are worried about heat, use automotive engine block paint, it is rated high enough that the heat should be no problem.
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
Rustoleum makes 1200F high temp spray paint - as Shadow mentioned.
Normally you see it in black for painting metal BBQ grills and such, but it's also available in white.
I don't know how this stuff would work - but it should certainly take the heat.
 
bobothewizard

bobothewizard

Member
Ill have to figure out a way to do this over the weekend. The canopy the wife and I made was too small. The lights arrived yesterday even though they say they are 48 inch lights they still need around 49 inches to be installed :( We had to salvage what we could from the canopy and we will rebuild again this weekend. Also since we made the canopy out of pine sheets, it appears the the sheets are made from 1x3's of pine that are either glued together or pressed together to make a sheet. We tried to take the canopy apart to salvage but the sheet of pine was just coming apart at the area where it was pressed/glued together. What a mess and dissapointment since we were so happy with the job we did.
Can anyone recommend some good type of plywood to build this canopy out of. The plywood we got last time looked really horrible.
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
You may want to look at some of the red oak or birch veneer plywoods. Much cheaper than solid hardwoods, but either one take a stain nicely and are easy to work with.
Available in 1/4", 1/2" 3/4" all of which are pretty common for building a canopy.
Sorry to hear of your dissapointment.
They do make tubes in a 46.5" length as well - for what it's worth.
 
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