Do You Use a Par Meter?

[Bpb]

Not exactly a popular opinion but LEDs really should be checked every year for the 5 + yr lifespan.

Unlike mh and t5 who's lifespan is relatively predictable or just " tossed" on a schedule seeing if the diodes are fading is practically impossible by eyeball.

Now proper designs with quality LEDs shouldn't have this as an issue in under 5 yrs BUT, honesty, there isn't much of a track record to go on here.

If one has a laptop or compatible the USB sensor is cheaper.

SQ-520: Full-Spectrum Smart Quantum Sensor (USB)

The SQ-520 smart full-spectrum quantum sensor can be connected directly to a computer to take spot measurements or graph and log real-time PPFD using the included software.

www.apogeeinstruments.com

Cost of 2 years of bulbs and it still holds some financial value.

That said the new seneye/parwise are even cheaper.

PARwise USB Light Meter

All the Metrics Needed to Make Informed Decisions about your Aquarium Light Compatible with any light source Can be used wet or dry Works with Windows PC, macOS*, and Android devices Measures multiple lighting metrics: PAR (PPFD – Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density µMol/m2/S) Kelvin (Color...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Not completely sold on its absolute accuracy but should be good for relative measurement.
No reason for this feeling though.

+1. Part of why I wanted to own one. To track degradation. Also allows me to make spectral shifts and keep par stable which tends to lessen the negative effects

 

[fodsod]

I bought an Apogee 510 a few months ago and it was a wake up call on my PAR levels. I figure it's a useful tool if you're adjusting lighting/replacing lighting or have a coral not doing well (check to see if PAR is correct). 100% worth the money IMO.

 

[rtparty]

Bought one a couple years ago. Just grabbed the USB computer version on BRS Open Box for like $150 or so. Easily worth the money.

When I switched from halides to LEDs it made it so simple. Not a single coral lost and everything thriving.

 

[codenfx]

Rented one when I first set up the tank, to my surprise the par was way lower than expected. Changed lights, rented another... then changed lights again a year later but this time I figure it's worth to purchase a par meter. I had been changing my rockscape couple times now, wish I purchase the meter rather than renting. Very handy to have especially if changing out lights, rockscape and/or tanks in future

 

[Badboy GP]

I currently use a seneye.. I know it's not 100% accurate... atleast I have a ball park figure.

 

[leepink23]

I bought an apogee 510, love it! It paid for itself with rentals. Now I no longer rent it but have a par meter

 

[LightingBug]

Exactly what I plan to do now. I plan to monitor my leds, 3 types, to see how much they change over time.
I have been 11/2 years on full leds.
They perform as well as my old T5 and Halide system, imo.

+1. Part of why I wanted to own one. To track degradation. Also allows me to make spectral shifts and keep par stable which tends to lessen the negative effects

TLDR;
Having a PAR meter is useful if you plan on being in the hobby for many years, no matter which light source you prefer.

I could argue it is even more important for the legacy technologies like MH or T-5's over LED technology.

This is the way...

LED's lifetime is measured differently than any other sources.
As an example - look at a standard old incandescent lamp - like we all had before the LED became useful.
If you look up the life time of this lamp, it would say something like 750 hours.

But, how they measured that was really stupid and simple.

They plugged in 100 of the same lamp in a room and waited until 50% of them went out and BOOM - that was the lifetime and they published that.

So, essentially if you bought one it was a 50/50 shot on whether it would die before or after that same mark.

There is also the depreciation factor (which is what is being said with checking your LED's periodically/monitoring).

With LED's we used a .92 factor for depreciation in our calculations. Meaning a LED will depreciate about 8% over 5-ish years. This was years ago, they are more efficient today. For comparison, a MH was .68, electronic version was a .75, and a T-5 was a .85.

Now they measure LED life in L50 and L70 - which is Lifetime @ 50,000 hours and @ 70,000 hours respectively.

So far I have noticed that the manufacturers of LED lighting for Marine applications do not publish the L70 data. This is because in order to do that, you have to run a HALT test on the entire fixture (not just the LED in free air).

A HALT machine is super expensive and is the size of a car. HALT stands for Highly Accelerated Lifetime Test. It simulated a real-world environment (heat, cold, rain, salt in the air, etc.) in order to predict the lifetime of a fixture. With L70 hours in the 800k + range we have to use a simulated real environment test as waiting for 95 years is not an option.

We can get the lifetime of just the LED outside a fixture, but that changes when it is put into a fixture. Heat is the biggest enemy of a LED (much like a fat man) but it is the heat at the "joint" not really ambient heat. The joint is the spot where the LED is soldered into the board it rests on. In commercial lighting fixtures we use heat-sinks to move that joint heat away from the board. Some of the "lesser" manufacturers use a fan, which is not a good solution as the lifetime of a fan is less than the lifetime of a fixture or driver. If the fan dies and it's not replaced the joint temperature as well as the ambient heat in the fixture rises and the fixture fails.

A LED will never "die" realistically, it will just depreciate until we can't see it anymore with the naked eye.

Sorry for the long post, but this was the longest way for me to say - having a PAR meter is useful if you plan on being in the hobby for many years, no matter which light source you prefer.

I could argue it is even more important for the legacy technologies like MH or T-5's over LED technology.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a friend with a unit that stops occasionally and brings it with him

 

[MartinM]

TLDR;
Having a PAR meter is useful if you plan on being in the hobby for many years, no matter which light source you prefer.

I could argue it is even more important for the legacy technologies like MH or T-5's over LED technology.

This is the way...

LED's lifetime is measured differently than any other sources.
As an example - look at a standard old incandescent lamp - like we all had before the LED became useful.
If you look up the life time of this lamp, it would say something like 750 hours.

But, how they measured that was really stupid and simple.

They plugged in 100 of the same lamp in a room and waited until 50% of them went out and BOOM - that was the lifetime and they published that.

So, essentially if you bought one it was a 50/50 shot on whether it would die before or after that same mark.

There is also the depreciation factor (which is what is being said with checking your LED's periodically/monitoring).

With LED's we used a .92 factor for depreciation in our calculations. Meaning a LED will depreciate about 8% over 5-ish years. This was years ago, they are more efficient today. For comparison, a MH was .68, electronic version was a .75, and a T-5 was a .85.

Now they measure LED life in L50 and L70 - which is Lifetime @ 50,000 hours and @ 70,000 hours respectively.

So far I have noticed that the manufacturers of LED lighting for Marine applications do not publish the L70 data. This is because in order to do that, you have to run a HALT test on the entire fixture (not just the LED in free air).

A HALT machine is super expensive and is the size of a car. HALT stands for Highly Accelerated Lifetime Test. It simulated a real-world environment (heat, cold, rain, salt in the air, etc.) in order to predict the lifetime of a fixture. With L70 hours in the 800k + range we have to use a simulated real environment test as waiting for 95 years is not an option.

We can get the lifetime of just the LED outside a fixture, but that changes when it is put into a fixture. Heat is the biggest enemy of a LED (much like a fat man) but it is the heat at the "joint" not really ambient heat. The joint is the spot where the LED is soldered into the board it rests on. In commercial lighting fixtures we use heat-sinks to move that joint heat away from the board. Some of the "lesser" manufacturers use a fan, which is not a good solution as the lifetime of a fan is less than the lifetime of a fixture or driver. If the fan dies and it's not replaced the joint temperature as well as the ambient heat in the fixture rises and the fixture fails.

A LED will never "die" realistically, it will just depreciate until we can't see it anymore with the naked eye.

Sorry for the long post, but this was the longest way for me to say - having a PAR meter is useful if you plan on being in the hobby for many years, no matter which light source you prefer.

I could argue it is even more important for the legacy technologies like MH or T-5's over LED technology.

Agree! I wouldn't reef without one, had one at least 12 years now. I really don't understand not owning one, it's like having a car without a speedometer - an essential measurement device that costs a tiny fraction of the total of what a reef aquarium setup costs.

 

[Jcantrell]

I bout one using preferred reefer points that I won through BRS. It really does provide peace of mind when you know that your corals are under optimal PAR levels. It will prevent you from needlessly adjusting your lights.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I bout one using preferred reefer points that I won through BRS. It really does provide peace of mind when you know that your corals are under optimal PAR levels. It will prevent you from needlessly adjusting your lights.

I like having a par meter because it removes one more element of guesswork. I also have a microscope which removes another.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Not exactly a popular opinion but LEDs really should be checked every year for the 5 + yr lifespan.

Unlike mh and t5 who's lifespan is relatively predictable or just " tossed" on a schedule seeing if the diodes are fading is practically impossible by eyeball.

Now proper designs with quality LEDs shouldn't have this as an issue in under 5 yrs BUT, honesty, there isn't much of a track record to go on here.

If one has a laptop or compatible the USB sensor is cheaper.

SQ-520: Full-Spectrum Smart Quantum Sensor (USB)

The SQ-520 smart full-spectrum quantum sensor can be connected directly to a computer to take spot measurements or graph and log real-time PPFD using the included software.

www.apogeeinstruments.com

Cost of 2 years of bulbs and it still holds some financial value.

That said the new seneye/parwise are even cheaper.

PARwise USB Light Meter

All the Metrics Needed to Make Informed Decisions about your Aquarium Light Compatible with any light source Can be used wet or dry Works with Windows PC, macOS*, and Android devices Measures multiple lighting metrics: PAR (PPFD – Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density µMol/m2/S) Kelvin (Color...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Not completely sold on its absolute accuracy but should be good for relative measurement.
No reason for this feeling though.

Thank you! I knew I seen this product on some website but I couldn't remember which one it was. Right now I'm shooting in the dark and have no idea where I'm even at. It's kinda sad BRS has a team answering phone calls and you give them all the details after they tell you to take some pictures and all one gets is a link to a couple of YouTube videos which doesn't even relate remotely to my aquarium and the light. I told them the height the light is mounted at and the height width and depth of the tank and yeah.... All I get is to YouTube links. You would figure with all the testing they do in house that they could at least give a person somewhat of an educated guess on color Channel settings. Oh well such is life! I'll just wait until this meter goes on sale and pick one up. My wife even went on to the AI Facebook page and they were like a pack of wild dogs saying this is wrong, that's a boring setting, do this, do that, but yet no two people could agree on one relatively close usable setting. I just ended up taking salty pops initial ramp up settings and dialed back the red and green and cool White and then put it on a 60% acclamation mode for 30 days. Just winging it till I can either toss BRS $500 USD deposit to rent their meter which translates into close to $700 CAD :/

 

[Dburr1014]

I also pickup a PARwise. I dialed in my led exactly how I wanted. Very easy to use and very surprised in my initial use how low my PAR was.
If LED are rated 50,000 hours, that's 4380 hours a year @ 12 hours per day. That equals 11 years of use.
I have 4 channels of my Reefbreeders at 100%. I'm going to have to replace them soon.

 

[X-37B]

Thank you! I knew I seen this product on some website but I couldn't remember which one it was. Right now I'm shooting in the dark and have no idea where I'm even at. It's kinda sad BRS has a team answering phone calls and you give them all the details after they tell you to take some pictures and all one gets is a link to a couple of YouTube videos which doesn't even relate remotely to my aquarium and the light. I told them the height the light is mounted at and the height width and depth of the tank and yeah.... All I get is to YouTube links. You would figure with all the testing they do in house that they could at least give a person somewhat of an educated guess on color Channel settings. Oh well such is life! I'll just wait until this meter goes on sale and pick one up. My wife even went on to the AI Facebook page and they were like a pack of wild dogs saying this is wrong, that's a boring setting, do this, do that, but yet no two people could agree on one relatively close usable setting. I just ended up taking salty pops initial ramp up settings and dialed back the red and green and cool White and then put it on a 60% acclamation mode for 30 days. Just winging it till I can either toss BRS $500 USD deposit to rent their meter which translates into close to $700 CAD :/

The ParWise par meter is only $300. You may want to take a look at one. I run 7 16hds on 2 different systems for over 1.5 years now. They are the leds that got me off halides.
A few people told me they wont grow sps so I decided to find out.
My old 20 cube running 2 16hds.
First 4 at 100% the rest at 50% will give great results. This is my go to setting.
Zero to 10 months before I broke it down.

 

[RichReef]

Using a PAR meter was one of the best things I ever did for my tank.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Absolutely, I consider it required gear at this point. Just an apogee 420.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

The ParWise par meter is only $300. You may want to take a look at one. I run 7 16hds on 2 different systems for over 1.5 years now. They are the leds that got me off halides.
A few people told me they wont grow sps so I decided to find out.
My old 20 cube running 2 16hds.
First 4 at 100% the rest at 50% will give great results. This is my go to setting.
Zero to 10 months before I broke it down.

Thank you for your post I found it very helpful, those arms you were using, how high off of the water were they sitting?

 

[X-37B]

Thank you for your post I found it very helpful, those arms you were using, how high off of the water were they sitting?

Those are the metal ai units 10".
Get the gooseneck ones the metal ones move if you look at them. I run all 7 with the gooseneck mount.
My 30

 

[FrugalReefer]

I initially rented this from BRS but decided to keep it. I don’t regret my decision one bit.

 

[LightingBug]

Those are the metal ai units 10".
Get the gooseneck ones the metal ones move if you look at them. I run all 7 with the gooseneck mount.
My 30

If you buy these arms LOOK in the bag (if you can) to make sure they have the small bag with the parts and allen key.

I have (4) Primes currently - bought (2) 12" arms and (2) 18" arms last week. One of the 12's and one of the 18's did NOT have those parts, which render them useless. The replacement process has been frustrating.