IMO lux is a cheaper more accessible meter mainly. 15 to 75 bucks.
Esp for many just starting out.
If you weren't thinking in par you would think only in intensity. It actually is a bit simpler to comprehend.
Outside on a nice day is 100,000 lux.
In the dark is 0 lux.
Experience has tauht us on a 24 in tank 15 to 50,000 lux will grow corals depending on species.
Yea pretty much any light source. It's been tried.
Same can be said for orchids actually and other agriculture and plants
Though they generally use foot candles not lux. Jus another standard of light intensity. Metric and English
If using a light with spectral properties that are know to grow a specific plant or coral. You now need to know how much of that light you need.
How much measured intensity in lux or foot candles.
Good Spectrum plus intensity can be measured by a par meter.
But
Good light for green beans and a high light SPS coral are spectrally very different.
But both can be lets say 750 par.
Thus my new found preference of choosing lighting color species specifily and measure its intensity.
But like so many thing in Reefing. It all works.
I'm not at home right now. Actually color timing a film. Kinda cool. But I'll look for a few of the convos that we've had that are good. And I highly reccomend research and experimentation hands on. There's distict difference in learning by doing and reiteration of teqnique one has simply read. Or been told.
Example.
Many folks have so often said you cannot convert lux to par.
That's kinda weird especially if one were to actually look there is a lux to par conversion chart right on the bigges name in par meters website.
I would not have known that if I had not looked for myself.
And than used a meter on my tank. And the dt at the Lfs.
My homework next week is to take tank pics and start a lux article. Wish me luck
