Now Last nite while I was doing my weekly clean, I noticed that the reflective strip/ white plastic above the light had become slighty warped & was hanging out of postion. On attempting to bend it slightly back in position it snapped all over the place

Wheres the cheapest place to get a replacement ?

& what should I look for i.e. what is the correct terminology for this reflective strip/ white plastic .

Thks in advance.

This post has been edited by sizzla01: May 20 2008, 10:24 AM

It sounds like you broke the reflector in your hood. If you did, a standard replacement will only be easy to get from the manufacturer. To me it sounds like you don't want an original if it broke that easily though. That then gets you to a custom lighting kit. They are available but they are much more than just a reflector.

Well its a Juwel tank & i can imagine an "official" replacement could be expensive for what it is...

Ima check ebay now that i know its called a "reflector"..

Cheers

yup reflector.

you don't necessarily have to have one, it will increase the output of your lights if you do have one, but it's not an essential.

a cheap alternative is to get this tape which is silver and reflective, tape up the inside of you're hood with that and it acts as a reflector, not as effective as a proper one but a good cheap alternative.

The best reflective surfaces seem to be white and not silver. For flexible ones you could use white Mylar, though I don't know how much it costs or where you could buy it in small quantities ... try a good garden centre or a hydroponics place - they sell it on the roll so you could see if you can get away with cutting off a small strip ... though they might charge by the metre rounded up.
Expanded polystyrene backing (its ~1mm thick ... the stuff you put on the walls before papering to help combat condensation among other things) you can get it from B&Q for next to nothing ... though you will have to buy a whole roll ... it has an amazing reflective index somewhere near to 100% and because of its surface structure the reflected light is distributed and creates no hot spots unlike metallic reflectors ... though you have to be careful what you use to stick it.

Failing all that you can get a Juwel reflector for about £6 either direct from Juwel or a good lfs.

A Little help please .....This is from the juwel website & is the hood i have for a Rekord 70

The complete lighting hood for all aquariums measuring 60 x 30 cm. Like all JUWEL Lighting Systems the Monolux 60 is waterproof. The Monolux 60 features a 15W light tube and, to double its light output, a built - in reflector. This is sufficient to maintain aquarium plants even in higher tanks. The Monolux 60 lighting hood is standard feature for our highly successful Rekord 60 and Rekord 70 aquariums. Please observe the recommendations in our instruction manual to ensure that the lighting hood continues to be waterproof. Changing the tubes and eventually the reflector regularly ensures good lighting conditions at all times.

It states that it has a built in reflector ??? which I assume is this white bit of plastic that I snapped. I don't mind purchasing a "Juwel" reflector as they seem to be relatively cheap.

However I'm abit lost on which one I would need, can I buy one of those "Optional JUWEL Reflectors more than double the light output of the system" will it fit onto my existing hood ???if so what size do I need for my hood.

Cheers for ur help

can you post a pic of the bit you broke so we can be absolutley sure what we're talking about?

I wont be home for several hours but its just a white plastic reflective strip that sits within the hood just above the tube.

I'll try & post it up later

You must have an older model as my Juwel 60 monlux hood has a strip of aluminium clipped into the hood - I haven't seen a replacement for it on the Juwel website ... I also have a Rio 125 with the optional reflectors and I guess you could probably shoe horn one of them into place ... you'd probably need to cut it to length, a good pair of sissors would work and you'd could probably fix it using something like epoxy resin ... if its fish safe??

Looking at my hood I would go with the white mylar as it is flexible and easy to cut to size.

This post has been edited by pastabake: May 21 2008, 08:10 PM

Thks pasta......I havent got an older version....mine has the "white mylar" and that is whats snapped.

Where can i get some new "White Mylar" any ideas

I must have the old version then.

Do a Google search for white Mylar. You can get it in the UK for ~£2 a sqr mtr.