I did it

[kidnick]

Hi all! Well I finally got my canopy built. I dont have any pictures yet cuz I have to borrow a camera. I think it turned out pretty nice considering I have never built anything that needed real carpentry skills. Anyway for the lights and reflector I used 4 32watt T8"s and mirrors. On the AH supply web site they showed a side view of their bright kit reflector, so I traced the Image and measured the angles for that shape. Then I bought a cheap door mirror from Home Depot for $6.95, and cut it into strips to fit the design. If what the web sight says is true about the reflector bumping up the light output by 62% then the use of real mirrors should give me around 207.3watts or 3.7wpg or more. Now I have to think about adding CO2 to the set up. As soon as I get a chance to get some pictures (and get my son to help me put them on the computer) Iwill post them for all to see. Thanks to all for all the help.

[nacra99]

4 x 32W gives you about 2.3 WPG for you 55g. I don't normally factor in the reflected light in my WPG calculations.

But if you don't want to go Hi-Tech, then my take is to try it out without CO2 injection for now and see how it goes. If the plants grow alrite, you may want to consider dosing with Excel to help with the growth.

But yea.. lookin forward to the pics!

Marc