Here is the reflector installed, with the bulbs installed to check how much added area of the bulbs can get light into the tank.
You can see from the reflections of the bulbs that considerable more light can be collected this way, but the reflections are far from perfect - maybe a third of the light actually gets reflected. So, the question I need an answer for is: should I use it this way, or add aluminized mylar to the surfaces, and why? I was able to get some very good quality mylar from nokturnalkid and jazzlvr123 that I can use, nice thick stuff, but I'm concerned that so many seem to have found that mylar isn't able to survive well in this application for over a year. So, what should I do?