Par readings seem low

[Napoliandy]

Hi everyone. I have a question. I recently bought a par meter and when I was doing the numbers, I realized that my par is a little, maybe a lot low. On the sand bed I’m getting a 100 par and at the surface I’m getting 250 and that’s if I up them to 60%. I presently running the reefdudes ab+ schedule at 40%, but I recently put in some new acros. I raised it to 50 and I will raise it again in a few days. I’m confused because I presently have 3xr15gen5pros and 2 Reefbrite Xho on my end lights. I thought these lights were supposed to have more power. They are only a year old, so I know they do lose power over time, but 250 at the water surface at 60%. It just seems off. They are 91/2” off the water surface. If anyone has input, please let me know.

 

[billyocean]

Reefbrites have pretty low par but good spread...they need to be hung pretty low. The radions aren't par monsters and can be cranked up also...so it's probably correct on the reading

 

[Napoliandy]

Reefbrites have pretty low par but good spread...they need to be hung pretty low. The radions aren't par monsters and can be cranked up also...so it's probably correct on the reading

What about other supplemental lighting maybe to add. Would you suggest anything.

 

[billyocean]

What about other supplemental lighting maybe to add. Would you suggest anything.

Quanta reef bars are strong.

 

[arcangelreef32]

you have pros.. AB+ uses very little white light. The Radion pros have alot if it’s wattage in white lights.
At 50% on an AB+ spectrum you are using MAYBE 30 watts of light per fixture. You need to crank the intensity up significantly on the pros if you don’t want to run alot of white light.

Running the AB+ spectrum on pros at 80-85% would give you about 50-60% of your potential output.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi everyone. I have a question. I recently bought a par meter and when I was doing the numbers, I realized that my par is a little, maybe a lot low. On the sand bed I’m getting a 100 par and at the surface I’m getting 250 and that’s if I up them to 60%. I presently running the reefdudes ab+ schedule at 40%, but I recently put in some new acros. I raised it to 50 and I will raise it again in a few days. I’m confused because I presently have 3xr15gen5pros and 2 Reefbrite Xho on my end lights. I thought these lights were supposed to have more power. They are only a year old, so I know they do lose power over time, but 250 at the water surface at 60%. It just seems off. They are 91/2” off the water surface. If anyone has input, please let me know.

Not too far from where I keep mine but you may want to increase Radion settings or add supplemental Bars such as OrphekOR3 sky Blue OR ReefBrite XHO

 

[arcangelreef32]

What about other supplemental lighting maybe to add. Would you suggest anything.

You don’t need anymore lighting fixtures, you have plenty of coverage. You just need to crank up the intensity.

 

[ninjamyst]

I run my XR30 gen 4 with diffusers at 100% intensity with mostly blues, whites less than 8%. Ramp up slowly if you intend to keep increasing intensity. I am actually contemplating adding another XR30 to get more par.

 

[The_Skrimp]

That amount of par sounds about right.

Here’s an old par map of my tank running a gen 5 xr15 pro on AB+ and the xho kit both at 100%

 

[mfinn]

Hi everyone. I have a question. I recently bought a par meter and when I was doing the numbers, I realized that my par is a little, maybe a lot low.

What par meter did you buy?

 

[Napoliandy]

What par meter did you buy?

Apogee mq 510. It’s supposedly the best.

 

[Napoliandy]

Not too far from where I keep mine but you may want to increase Radion settings or add supplemental Bars such as OrphekOR3 sky Blue OR ReefBrite XHO

I was looking at the sky blue. They really add pop as well. But led bars fall off significantly on either side. I could add for shadowing. What’s your opinion on ai blades.

Not too far from where I keep mine but you may want to increase Radion settings or add supplemental Bars such as OrphekOR3 sky Blue OR ReefBrite XHO

 

[mfinn]

Apogee mq 510. It’s supposedly the best.

Yeah, I agree.
Now my next question would be, how are the corals doing?
If they are doing fine, I wouldn't change much. And if you are determined to increase the intensity, use the acclimation feature on the radions.

 

[exnisstech]

Your measurements sound about right. I use the same meter and was getting similar results when I tested my xr15 gen 4 lights before I switched . You have room to increase the intensity so I would do that rather than adding more lights. That is if you really need more par. Corals condition should tell you that.

 

[Matt L]

Your par spread seems good to me, and normal for the lights. More par doesn't always equal better. But you can gradually increase the intensity or lower the fixture if desired.

 

[doubleshot00]

Quanta reef bars are strong.

This and the xr15 are pretty week.

For what all you paid you could have just gone Radion xr30 and been done with it.

Im running AI32s which are weak to but once i added a Quanta bar it added a 100 par to my tank. So I only need to run my 32s at about 60%.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I was looking at the sky blue. They really add pop as well. But led bars fall off significantly on either side. I could add for shadowing. What’s your opinion on ai blades.

Ive heard good about the blades, but have not used them. I saw a demo at RAP and the price is 1.5X the cost of OR3 Bars

 

[billyocean]

This and the xr15 are pretty week.

For what all you paid you could have just gone Radion xr30 and been done with it.

Im running AI32s which are weak to but once i added a Quanta bar it added a 100 par to my tank. So I only need to run my 32s at about 60%.

Yeah..they are in comparison to some. The radions are good lights but for half the cost of an xr30 you can get 70 more watts in a reefi 2.0. At the end of the day most adjustable leds will not be ran 100% on all spectrums. Most of what I've seen people run on radion is max on blue and a fraction of the white

 

[Napoliandy]

Yeah, I agree.
Now my next question would be, how are the corals doing?
If they are doing fine, I wouldn't change much. And if you are determined to increase the intensity, use the acclimation feature on the radions.

They aren’t doing bad. Slow growth, but everyone is happy so far. I just put acros in, so those numbers I would like to raise a little.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

My son runs an xr30pro on a reefer 170 around 70%. Most people run their lights too low