Tathamet
Active Member
Hey all,
So I’m planning on going sps dominant eventually and finally got to testing par coming off my almost 4 year old prime hd (not 16hd) after upgrading from a 9 gal flex to an evo 13.5.
Light settings are brs ab+ settings at 100% intensity. Mounted about 8 inches above the surface.
whites were actually at 19% for the par test last week. I raised them to 21% a couple days ago to see if par would go up a little bit but haven’t tested that yet.
Par readings were taken using the Photone app on iOS. Not perfect but all I have access to.
I only measured in the centre at 3 different depths for now.
3 inches below the surface was around 250 par.
6” was 170-180 (probably the depth most sps corals will be placed around. maybe in the 5-8 inchrange)
The sandbed (maybe 10.5 to 11 inches below the surface) was showing around 70-90 par.
so after this I tried lowering the light to 6” above the water line to try to raise par a bit in the 6” depth section. Now I’m getting about 450 par 3” down, 210-220 par 6” down and the sand bed stayed closer to 90 still.
The par is a bit better but at the cost of a few things. The spotlight effect has significantly increased and looks like a beam in the centre and the sides are quite a bit darker now. Shadowing has gotten worse too.
I’m really not liking how it looks now with overall spread/coverage.
I was thinking about adding another prime (not sure how weird it might look with the prime hd and a 16hd on the same tank). But for the cost It would be cheaper (and according to the stats it should have better par) to just buy 2 new noopsyche k7 minis or 1 k7 pro v3 with reduced intensity. Only problem would be trying to figure out how to mount them without cutting up the frame on my mesh top.
I guess an led bar or strip might help as well but I haven’t really looked into them. I have no clue where to start with these and how to choose the right colour without messing up the look of the spectrum I’m already using.
wondering what others would do here.
So I’m planning on going sps dominant eventually and finally got to testing par coming off my almost 4 year old prime hd (not 16hd) after upgrading from a 9 gal flex to an evo 13.5.
Light settings are brs ab+ settings at 100% intensity. Mounted about 8 inches above the surface.
whites were actually at 19% for the par test last week. I raised them to 21% a couple days ago to see if par would go up a little bit but haven’t tested that yet.
Par readings were taken using the Photone app on iOS. Not perfect but all I have access to.
I only measured in the centre at 3 different depths for now.
3 inches below the surface was around 250 par.
6” was 170-180 (probably the depth most sps corals will be placed around. maybe in the 5-8 inchrange)
The sandbed (maybe 10.5 to 11 inches below the surface) was showing around 70-90 par.
so after this I tried lowering the light to 6” above the water line to try to raise par a bit in the 6” depth section. Now I’m getting about 450 par 3” down, 210-220 par 6” down and the sand bed stayed closer to 90 still.
The par is a bit better but at the cost of a few things. The spotlight effect has significantly increased and looks like a beam in the centre and the sides are quite a bit darker now. Shadowing has gotten worse too.
I’m really not liking how it looks now with overall spread/coverage.
I was thinking about adding another prime (not sure how weird it might look with the prime hd and a 16hd on the same tank). But for the cost It would be cheaper (and according to the stats it should have better par) to just buy 2 new noopsyche k7 minis or 1 k7 pro v3 with reduced intensity. Only problem would be trying to figure out how to mount them without cutting up the frame on my mesh top.
I guess an led bar or strip might help as well but I haven’t really looked into them. I have no clue where to start with these and how to choose the right colour without messing up the look of the spectrum I’m already using.
wondering what others would do here.
