PAR requirements

[Stoneyman]

Wondering if anyone had opinions and or know of any threads about PAR readings in an sps tank. I rented a PAR meter and im trying to get the cliffnotes on what to aim for as far as coral placement.

 

[swk]

What kind of lighting do you use? I have learned that par meters are fairly useless for LEDs.

 

[Stoneyman]

T5s. 8 bulb ATI fixture. 24 inch deep 180 gal

 

[Keithcorals]

It's a little tricky because even if you had all SPS each coral has a preferred par
I general I'd say this is the range I use for corals when using my par meter


Lps 40-120

Zoas 40-120

Montipora 60-180

Acros 160-400+

That would be the lowest to highest I would recommend for those corals somewhere in the middle is probable best and you will find exceptions to those numbers but that should be a good reference to go by

 

[Keithcorals]

What kind of lighting do you use? I have learned that par meters are fairly useless for LEDs.

This is not true at all according to what I've read and my use of a par meter for years with all types of lighting there is no deference other than the optics used on LEDs can cause uneven light but the light it's self is not any harder for the par meter to read unless it's outside the range of Photosynthesis and would then be of no benefit to the coral

 

[Aquanaut WA]

Here is my PAR STUDY and link results



Aquanauts 250 Deep Dimension Tank...growing since '99

PS

Sorry for the cloudy picts, just scraped the glass clean.

 

[Stoneyman]

Wow thanks so much guys this was really helpful!

 

[Stoneyman]

Aquanaut great tank! And that photogragm is amazibg thanks for that