Kessil/T5 PAR Meter Recommendation

[LobsterOfJustice]

Looking for recommendation for a PAR meter that accurately measures Kessil and T5 lighting. I have never owned a PAR meter before, I know in the past they did not accurately read LED output but I assume that probably isn’t much of an issue with current units since LED has become so popular.

 

[Idoc]

I just picked up a Syneye, but haven't had time to use it yet to give a thumbs up/down report! Marine Depot had a sale on them a week or two ago bringing the price down to $179... tough to pass that up! Maybe the sale is still going on? Otherwise, the next reef friendly PAR meters go for around $350. Some use Lux meters, but I believe those only measure at the surface of the water.

 

[rkpetersen]

I have this one and am happy with it. (I should be, for the price.) It has been redesigned a couple of times (before I bought mine), to specifically address concerns about use with LEDs and also transitioning from air to water. The matching sensor wand, which brs also carries, is handy for taking par readings at multiple locations in the tank without causing a lot of disturbance.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Thanks guys.

@mods can someone fix my dumb phone autocorrect in the title? Should say Kessil...

 

[DSC reef]

Thanks guys.

@mods can someone fix my dumb phone autocorrect in the title? Should say Kessil...

#mods

 

[jda]

One with a cosine corrected sensor and with an immersion factor applied will work just fine. You can get them with cosine correction, just the sensor has to be square to the source or else you can get bad output. It is easy to apply a immersion factor, if you need one, just do not forget to do it.

PAR meter captures the visible range of light from about 400nm to 700nm. Most LED get read pretty well by the recent iteration of PAR meters. They oversample some of the spectrum just a bit, but since nearly all their output is in the visible range, a PAR meter grabs it pretty well. PAR meters will under sample T5s a bit and MH a lot since they have useful spectrum outside of the visible range that a PAR meter cannot capture.

I have an Apogee MQ-510 as well... no complaints. It is cosine corrected, has the larger spectrum sensor and has the immersion factor applied already.

 

[hart24601]

I already had a windows laptop so connecting the seneye to it to read values isn't a big deal. For 200 bucks or less I am happy with it.

 

[ikolbaba06]

Mq-510 is a good choice. Pricey but for use with my kessil ap700s it’s been an eye opener in terms of how minimal par I had over the tank which had been fixed with increased intensity.