Increasing light via white paper or aluminum foil?

[Essidi]

My tank is currently set up in a way which only 1 side is viewed. It's 20 watts on a ten gallon, which is apparently considered low light due to small tank size, however, if I were to line the three undisplayed sides of my aquarium with white paper, how significantly would that raise the light level?

Or is this a completely ridiculous idea lol.

[Lady Hobbs]

Why not just get low light plants like anubias or java moss.

[Essidi]

Oh I have a java fern and java moss at the moment. The tank's just looking a bit empty, and I'm also just curious.

[Aeonflame]

Mylar makes a much better reflector. Glossy white paint comes in second.

[dbosman]

My tank is currently set up in a way which only 1 side is viewed. It's 20 watts on a ten gallon, which is apparently considered low light due to small tank size, however, if I were to line the three undisplayed sides of my aquarium with white paper, how significantly would that raise the light level?
Or is this a completely ridiculous idea lol.

Not ridiculous, but not particularly useful either. Sorry.

The question that does matter is what type of light and fixture?
If you have the standard (roughly 18") 15 to 18 watt flourescent tube/bulb/lamp then yes, that is low to moderate lighting.

A nearly perfect, in my opinion, setup for 12" tall tanks is incandescent strip light fixtures with Sylvania, 23 watt, daylight, "Now smaller than ever", spiral compact bulbs.

Fortunately, there are a lot of plants that can thrive in your tank. A number of cryptocorynes, most stem plants, anubis, java ferns, etc.

[superbsite]

You can put a mirror as thats the best reflector of light. Remember when we were kids we would shine sunlight in the houses using small mirrors.

[Cermet]

Putting any type of reflector around the tank will do little as far as increasing lighting to plants. Rather, add aluminum foil inside the light housing will increase lighting a good bit. Still, the best solution is a CFL bulb(s) of the correct temperature for plants (if your hood uses 'screw in' bulbs.

[homemadepopcorn]

The question that does matter is what type of light and fixture?
If you have the standard (roughly 18") 15 to 18 watt flourescent tube/bulb/lamp then yes, that is low to moderate lighting.

Correct. If you had 20W of LED over that tank then you'd have a pretty bright tank, but I'm going to assume that this is either a T8 light or a CFL.

A cheap solution is to go and get a clamp on light from a hardware store and buy cool white bulbs in the highest wattages available. A better solution, that would also be a little more aesthetically pleasing, is a T5 fixture. You probably won't need a T5HO fixture for that size tank.