This is the type of content I'm here forOk everyone,
I won't post all of my research, I'll just get to the point. Here are some basic readings.
For reference, my lighting is 11 inches above the top of the water.
My Acropora start at 12 inches under the water and go down to about 15 inches under.
These readings are with all flow off, water totally still.
1) 250W dual bulb Metal Halide and dual LED running at same time PAR readings:
- ITC PARwise - 244 to 260 PAR
- Apogee MQ-510 - 340 to 355 PAR
2) 250w Metal Halide only
- ITC PARwise - 165 PAR
- Apogee MQ-510 - 240 PAR
Ok, now for my thoughts on which is possibly correct. I switched to Metal Halide within 3 weeks of starting this new Acropora system, from the LEDs. I was wanting the best possible outcome and I knew MH would go a long way in assuring that.
About 2 months into the Halides, my Acros were doing very good, but wasn't showing much color and I had one ORA Grape Juice Acro that was turning a bit brown, like it was starved for light. I couldn't rectify that in my mind as my Apogee PAR meter was reading 300 to 320 PAR 12ninches under the water. So I waited.
After a lot of thinking, I added one of my new Illumagic Blaze X 90s to the front of the tank and angled it about 20 degrees to cover the Acropora. I adjusted the fixture to low intensity in case it was too much on the Acropora.
Within 2 weeks, I noticed some of my Maricultured Acropora coloring up a bit with different colors and having more PE than normal. I added the second Illumagic Blaze to the rear of the tank and angled it forward.
It hasn't been a long time to give final thoughts, but I monitor the tank hourly. I've had great success with it and since adjusting my lighting to reflect 100 additional PAR on the Apogee, but correct PAR (with what it normally should be), instead of bleaching and retracted polyps, I'm getting GREAT results.
I have also notice that I'm not really using any Alk, Calcium, etc. A little, but like 0.10 to 0.20 change every two or three days.
I was SHOCKED to watch my tests run yesterday and I had dropped from 9.3 DKH to 8.1. Calcium had dropped about 40 or 50 points. That's a clear indication to me that the corals are getting the PAR they need now and are utilizing the available calcium, etc.
This is an educated guess, but I believe the ITC PARwise is correct and what should be used to adjust PAR. Remember, BRS had a video on YouTube testing the Seneye and the Apogee. They also found the Apogee to be very high in its PAR readings and the Seneye was almost perfect.
Buy the PARwise, tell them I sent you . Here are two graphs that I took. First one is MH and LED and the second one is MH only. I have the LED adjusted to maybe 40% and mostly blue. So this isn't a representation of full spectrum on the LED, but it is on the Halide. These are underwater, 12 inches.