Leaving a par meter in the tank means leaving to key it free of diatoms, sponges, and coralline. I find I only need to measure my par when I make changes. For example, before changing a t5 bulb, immediately steer the change so I can raise the fixture enough too have the same light level before the change, then once a week, for about a month, as the new bulbs settle into their long term output and I lower the fixture slightly.
I also find I need multiple measurements near specific coral colonies, to troubleshoot colour issues if a particular colony. Leaving a par meter in the tank 24/7 wouldn’t give me any useful data.
i have a seneye, and it works well. i connect it to a usb extension to ensure saltwater trickling down the wire will never make contact with the laptop USB port. I owned an apogee ages ago, but sold it when I got out of the hobby a decade ago. I didn’t get another apogee because they’ve gone up in price since and the seneye had a cheaper price.
The Seneye serves its purpose. I wish I had a handheld display and when I bought it, it activated as a freshwater unit. The retailer had to contact the rep, give them my account details, then I had to reinstall the software for it to work properly. I still couldn’t justify the price of the apogee at the time, even with the activation issue and the awkwardness of requiring a computer.
i used a raspberry pi running Linux with usb over wifi software for a bit, so that my desktop downstairs could run it 24/7 over the wifi. It was flaky, so I eventually took it down. The seneye was in the sump so coralline didn’t build up on it but it did build up sponges fast enough that I had to give it a good, careful cleaning after the one month experiment.
I wish seneye made a cheaper unit without the par sensor, just the ammonia sensor. Then I would run an ammonia sensor 24/7 without fear of the light sensor getting covered in sponges or coralline.
