Par meter question

[Steve Dillon]

What's the best brand on a budget?

 

[redfishbluefish]

It's my understanding that Apogee is the gold standard of PAR meters. You can get the full blown sensor and meter for a little under $400, or the Apogee sensor (sold under BioTek name) that attaches to your computer and has software as well, for about $200.

Now I also believe that they have apps for your phone, but not sure how you would safely submerge those in you tank.


And finally, I know there are some that swear by Lux meters.....but my opinion is that this is measuring brightness....not necessarily what our corals need in the way of wavelength. This would be the least expensive....and also available as an app for your phone.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It's my understanding that Apogee is the gold standard of PAR meters. You can get the full blown sensor and meter for a little under $400, or the Apogee sensor (sold under BioTek name) that attaches to your computer and has software as well, for about $200.

Now I also believe that they have apps for your phone, but not sure how you would safely submerge those in you tank.


And finally, I know there are some that swear by Lux meters.....but my opinion is that this is measuring brightness....not necessarily what our corals need in the way of wavelength. This would be the least expensive....and also available as an app for your phone.

+1

No par apps yet, probably a good thing to0, less wet phones.
the lux apps I dont like I tested a lot of them. The $13 meter is better by far.
Yes lux measures intensity only, not a substitute for a par meter, but I personally would like to own both, its a useful tool.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Any photography meters that you know of that give you a color spectrum in degrees Kelvin? @saltyfilmfolks

I personally would find that useful, especially for taking pictures of my tank!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Any photography meters that you know of that give you a color spectrum in degrees Kelvin? @saltyfilmfolks

I personally would find that useful, especially for taking pictures of my tank!

Minolta (old school) Kenko and sekonic. are the industry standard.=$$$$$ BUT they suffer the same problem a par meter does when reading multi array LED's, this is addressed in Apogee's white paper on the site and the new Apogee 500, and is why I don't believe par meters much like the seneye and even Licor tests that don't utilise that strategy. IE the very small sensor may only be reading one led and more so the closer you get to the light.
Ive never used the less expensive models of color meters.

there are some apps that are actually quite good but you need to bounce the light of of a white card or grey.