Should I buy a Par Meter

[Freenow54]

You can approximate PAR pretty well with a simple LUX meter. There's a bunch of info on here about it.

I have a lux meter. I bought it and thought it was the wrong application. Does not measure the entire spectrum, and cannot submerse it. I was of the impression that it is for agriculture. Not going to grow pot lol. Which is what all the you tube videos are about. It is a Milwaukee. Will look again but did not find much useful info on this site

 

[Freenow54]

Your Green Bay jersey doesn't tell me where you are in Canada, but as mentioned Fragbox rents them. It's $30 for 2 days.

I am going to have to change my jersey. A little miffed with rogers, and his arrogance. I live about an hour from them, went on the site. Could not find that, and tough people to contact. Will try again Thanks

 

[Freenow54]

I am going to restate my original question. I have 2 Aquanest lights with preprogramed lighting . One for sps, one for lps. Can I rely on that or should I use a par meter. I really don't want to buy one at $600 so I will try the other suggested avenues, but is it necessary?

 

[FishyFishFish]

I am unfamiliar with that light but do they give any information on what those settings mean?

Do they tell you how the light needs to be mounted? Do they give you the PAR values over different size tanks? Do they tell you what depth tank they were set for?

Will they work if you just set them and see? Maybe, maybe not. I think you’d probably get away with it for LPS but not so sure for SPS.

I have a AI prime and have followed the BRS settings so should know roughly what PAR I am getting. However, I’m not confident it is correct so I have bought a PAR meter.

However, it’s a lot of money for something that may only be used a couple of times, hence the thread drift onto rental.

 

[shwareefer]

I am going to restate my original question. I have 2 Aquanest lights with preprogramed lighting . One for sps, one for lps. Can I rely on that or should I use a par meter. I really don't want to buy one at $600 so I will try the other suggested avenues, but is it necessary?

With leds it's truly tricky. Without a par meter, you really have no choice but to watch the response of your corals - and that's not a 24hour thing, it's a months long thing. For me the seneye was accurate enough to get me corrected.

So I guess my answer is yes to a par meter be it rental, purchase, seneye, apogee.

 

[Hooz]

I will say that checking your tank with a PAR meter is essential if you really want to have the best setup you can have. Manufacturer settings are very general. The chances that they used the lights mounted at the same height over the same tank as you, so your chances of getting it right with a preset are slim.

Even rockwork can change PAR readings, so even if you found someone running the same light setup on the same tank, chances are the PAR would be different. It'd be close, but different.

 

[Imaburch]

I am going to restate my original question. I have 2 Aquanest lights with preprogramed lighting . One for sps, one for lps. Can I rely on that or should I use a par meter. I really don't want to buy one at $600 so I will try the other suggested avenues, but is it necessary?

IMO even though the lights come preset with the different options for your corals, they can not be trusted. The reason I say that is the there is no way for them to know the depth of your tank. As the light travels through the water the intensity lowers. Having the PAR meter is a great way to check that. The prests determine the amout of light in each of the spectrums and not the intensity.

Hope that helps and Rodgers is still one of the BEST QBs in the league and Greenbay is the best team, by far!

 

[Freenow54]

IMO even though the lights come preset with the different options for your corals, they can not be trusted. The reason I say that is the there is no way for them to know the depth of your tank. As the light travels through the water the intensity lowers. Having the PAR meter is a great way to check that. The prests determine the amout of light in each of the spectrums and not the intensity.

Hope that helps and Rodgers is still one of the BEST QBs in the league and Greenbay is the best team, by far!

Yes I am trying to forgive Him but taking a lot of flack from my friend who is a Brady fan. I am going to get a par meter by whatever means Thanks Everybody. Then since I do have a brand new Lux meter. After I set everything, I am going to measure the suns intensity outside, and the measure directly under the lights which are 8" from the top of the water, as shown in BRS videos while using a Par meter, and logging spread, and intensity in their tank. Since I am a diver/ armature photographer in the day. I know reefs thrive in 35 feet at equator. So just for fun.

 

[NS Mike D]

I bumped the par meter thread in the supporting members thread. R2R has a loaner par meter for supporting members (the par meter is well worth being a supporting member). Seems a member had some personal set backs and so the progress stopped. Maybe whomever has it can get it to another member soon.

 

[Freenow54]

I was on the Apogee site. Dana Riddle did a review on the 510. I cannot find it here. Any help?

 

[Derrick0580]

I guess whether or not you should buy one depends on if you are planning on changing your light intensities or moving aquascaping around. If you are gonna set and forget ur lights and never move anything in your tank, you could get by with a rental or having someone come get readings for you.

 

[Derrick0580]

Brs did a experiment investigating 3 different par meters.
I’m considering getting a seneye .
As accurate for a fraction of the cost .

Apogee has one that will attach to a computer and use their app for just a hair more than the seneye. I really hoping they come up with one that hooks to a smart phone and runs off an app…that would be a game changer!

 

[Rmckoy]

Apogee has one that will attach to a computer and use their app for just a hair more than the seneye. I really hoping they come up with one that hooks to a smart phone and runs off an app…that would be a game changer!

Do you have a link ?

 

[Freenow54]

Oddly enough I was just going to ask that very question. Dana Riddle did a review of the Apogee 510. The attachment you are talking about downloads to a usb memory stick by the looks of it and is necessary to convert for the lack of a better term so your computer can download the readings. The question is whether or not it is worth the extra cost for an individual. Also do not know at this time what it will actually show you. Although I am seriously thinking of going into the " mapping " business. #reef squad

 

[Freenow54]

I guess whether or not you should buy one depends on if you are planning on changing your light intensities or moving aquascaping around. If you are gonna set and forget ur lights and never move anything in your tank, you could get by with a rental or having someone come get readings for you.

I intend to map my Aquarium with all the intensities, and have a drawing. I think it may be of permanent use as I buy more coral to find optimum spots or change lighting hardware. Or in the case of bad reactions change, and observe the effect

 

[Freenow54]

Do you have a link ?

Just go on Apogee site. The links are there. Nothing for the function of the attachment yet. Just going to do that, and trying to get Dana Riddle to reply since he did a review. That link is no longer connecting on Apogee's site. If I find it will post it

 

[Freenow54]

Do you have a link ?

Found a Perfect link. It is from Apogee, and is a you Tube video. Pretty Cool, but need Excel to get full benefit. How to use excel with it is very well explained. Ends up giving a graph. Search You Tube for " Apogee Instruments Meter User Guide "

 

[oreo54]

This one?

 

[Kingston]

I haven't seen anyone mention the Neptune Apex par sensor. That is cheaper if the OP already has Apex and it can sit in the tank for several days for a more accurate par monitoring.

 

[Rmckoy]

I haven't seen anyone mention the Neptune Apex par sensor. That is cheaper if the OP already has Apex and it can sit in the tank for several days for a more accurate par monitoring.

Assuming for those that don’t have apex . This will not help ?