Re: DYI reflector

[mengerin at cs_utexas.edu]

This issue comes up quite a lot over the years.  I'm certain that the
information is out somewhere for the exact percentage, but bright white
paint reflects something like 95% of the light.  A full-on polished chrome
reflector did something like 98% or 99%.

In summary, 99% of all people are wasting their optimization efforts (on a
meager 5%) to worry about doing anything but providing a nice flat white
surface for the light to bounce off of.

Issues that are more important to maximize the lights benefit IMHO are:

1. Surface skimming to remove protein skum which blocks incoming light.
2. Carbon filtering (removes yellow and reduced the light absorbed in the
   water column, but I personally do not recommend nor use carbon filtering).
3. The distance the lights are from the water.
4. The type of ballast you're using.
5. The bulbs themselves.

				Cheers,
				Matthew

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