DIY-REFLECTOR FOR A COOL TUBE. PICS. Will it improve yield/light?

I got tired of looking at my crappy, way-too-simple batwing reflector for my cool tube, so I started looking around for better reflectors, but I couldn't find any. So I bought a cheap basic light fixture/reflector for about $30 and used its reflector to sloppily put it on my cool tube. I beat down the middle so it was flat and used aluminum twisty ties to attach it on because I couldn't figure out a better way. It works pretty well and is secure.

I figure for $30, if I get two extra grams because of it, I'll be satisfied with that.

My question about it is, will it help improve my yield at all by providing better light reflection and therefore more light penetration? Why don't cool-tubes come with or have the option of having better reflectors? I read that cool-tubes have the worst light penetration... could it partly be because of such a shitty reflector? It's a 600w HPS. What do you think?

Here is what I had originally, but got annoyed with:

Here is what I did and have now:



**** RP ONLY!!

What size HID you using in that. Guessing 600 or so? What that will do is give you a larger foot print. And just may possibly increase yields a little. depending on what light you are using.

Ammastor said:

What size HID you using in that. Guessing 600 or so? What that will do is give you a larger foot print. And just may possibly increase yields a little. depending on what light you are using.

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Yeah, it is a 600 watt hps. I know it must help a little, but I wonder how much it possibly could if cool tubes don't really come with better reflectors. When I put it on, the light glare that was on the walls of my tent, went down farther, so I do feel like it is concentrating the light better down below instead of being wasted going above the light. The reflector I had was so worthless. I wanted to see other people's opinions about it.

the reason the tube is considered bad to yields is the tube itself, it loses 10% of the light. a few growers sometime back did comparison testing of all the popular hoods of the time. that was what the result was for the tube. there are some hoods out there that the tube is built in. http://newandusedgrowlights.com/shop/hoodsreflectors/saturn-8-cool-tube-reflector/

SeedHo said:

the reason the tube is considered bad to yields is the tube itself, it loses 10% of the light. a few growers sometime back did comparison testing of all the popular hoods of the time. that was what the result was for the tube. there are some hoods out there that the tube is built in. http://newandusedgrowlights.com/shop/hoodsreflectors/saturn-8-cool-tube-reflector/

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This guy is correct. You do lose light because the light has to pass threw a lens that otherwise would not be there. If you will have heat issues without it I would use it. But If you can get away without the tube you would be better off only using the reflector and not the cool tube. Cool tubes are usually used to move the heat from the bulb away from the grow. In my case I need the heat where it is as it is cool in the area I am in. Temps never exceed 80 well seen it once at 85 but. It usually stays below 80.

You would get better light with just the bulb and the hood you have. But cool tubes do work.

As to yield increase I wouldn't know. Just grow and get what you can. Work on nutes, and your setup. getting all nutes and your timings correct increase yeilds in itself. But you want to push the blants and not burn them.

How are you growing anyways? Soil / Hydro?

I run two cool tubes. I ditched the reflectors at the beginning. My room is reflective from floor to ceiling using 1" rigid insulation that has a foil type cover on one side.
I have not tried the reflectors nor shall I. In the past my plants would grow above my lights due to the lights not being able to go any closer to the ceiling.
My new room has an 8 foot ceiling compared to my last room with a 53 inch high ceiling. I guess I will see what happens soon enough...

I will watch to see what everyone else's opinions are on this subject.