What PAR meters do you guys rely on? Is this something every serious reefer should buy?

[RipVanWinkle]

Don't flame me, but I'm going to play devil's advocate. If your corals are thriving, what difference does it make what your PAR values are? I can see the usefulness when setting up a new tank or perhaps changing lights, but in an established healthy tank, I question the need.

I see a lot of people in this hobby getting caught up in chasing numbers to the overall detriment of their tank, especially with regard to PO4/NO3. Above all else, corals crave consistency. I prefer to let results guide my husbandry and not numbers.

Agreed, if I plan to have zoanthids and mushrooms in my tank and I physically see frags growing on the bottom what need do I have for numbers?

 

[jdstank]

Don't flame me, but I'm going to play devil's advocate. If your corals are thriving, what difference does it make what your PAR values are? I can see the usefulness when setting up a new tank or perhaps changing lights, but in an established healthy tank, I question the need.

I see a lot of people in this hobby getting caught up in chasing numbers to the overall detriment of their tank, especially with regard to PO4/NO3. Above all else, corals crave consistency. I prefer to let results guide my husbandry and not numbers.

Plus there’s the whole PAR vs PUR debate. Does PAR really matter as much as PUR? Depends on who you ask. You can flood your tank with plenty of PAR with varying nm of light spectrum (say, from all whites for example) but it doesn’t mean the coral are getting what they need in terms of correct spectrum.

 

[Jax15]

The PAR meter is handy, and being able to rent them definitely makes it easier. Personally I rented one, then took readings at all different light intensities and surface flows, so I have at least a rough idea how changes I make in the future will impact PAR.

In general, it depends on what lighting you have. If you stick with common LEDs like kessils, etc, you can probably estimate pretty well. If you add hybrid setups, use black boxes, etc... it's worth getting some true readings (at least once).

Coral growth also can change par, so I'll probably rent one again after a year or two. It's been a year since my last time, and changes have definitely occurred.

 

[LRT]

I just picked up a Seneye that im going to cross check to Apogee to see where things are sitting. Especially around outside edges of my tables.
Totally love the Seneye so far. Takes all the guessing out of Spectrum, Temp, Ammonia and Ph swings as an awesome added bonus.

 

[Nhjmc]

I recently bought a Seneye Reef monitor which is also measures PAR, LUX and Kelvin (haven't quite figured out the LUX and Kelvin part of it yet though) but for measuring PAR it works great! Honestly shocked that it's not more than $200 considering what it does/is.

 

[Freenow54]

So...I've been thinking about the importance of mapping and monitoring PAR in a reef tank, and that has led me to 3 questions:

1) How important is it to know and monitor your PAR? (Is one time measuring enough, or should you check it periodically?)
2) Is a PAR meter something every serious reefer should own?
3) Which PAR meters do you guys trust most?

I have researched this quite a bit. A meter is very expensive. If you have a laptop I have seen people buy relativly cheap sensors, and us a software download. Bulk Reef Supply has some great videos, and show you how to us one. They also show the levels of the different spectrums you should have. Third They experiment with different hieghts off the tank to achieve a greater sweet spot. Typically it is 8 inches with the proper intensity set. Lots of info on this. I live in Canada so I cannot take advantage of what Bulk Reef Supply has for you. You can rent one from them $75 getting the idea of expense? They seem to imply it is a one time set up

 

[Freenow54]

I have researched this quite a bit. A meter is very expensive. If you have a laptop I have seen people buy relativly cheap sensors, and us a software download. Bulk Reef Supply has some great videos, and show you how to us one. They also show the levels of the different spectrums you should have. Third They experiment with different hieghts off the tank to achieve a greater sweet spot. Typically it is 8 inches with the proper intensity set. Lots of info on this. I live in Canada so I cannot take advantage of what Bulk Reef Supply has for you. You can rent one from them $75 getting the idea of expense? They seem to imply it is a one time set up

So just looked at the Seneye monitor. On Bulk Reef Supply. $210 US and if you want to go legal , another $$$ for the downloadable software or they show a hack.

 

[leepink23]

No haven't gotten it in the mail yet I'll let you all know when I test it out

I have tested my lights with a seneye and apogee 510 within the last week. I am getting a huge discrepancy. The seneye is reading very high which is hard to believe. It has left me confused which is correct.

 

[Pistondog]

I have tested my lights with a seneye and apogee 510 within the last week. I am getting a huge discrepancy. The seneye is reading very high which is hard to believe. It has left me confused which is correct.

I have the apogee 510. The seneye was not as accurate.
Helpful to know real par, my light settings never match what the par videos use.

 

[leepink23]

I have the apogee 510. The seneye was not as accurate.
Helpful to know real par, my light settings never match what the par videos use.

I am definitely going to go with the apogee par readings. Just didn’t feel confident at how high the seneye par readings were.

 

[Shadows Reef]

I have tested my lights with a seneye and apogee 510 within the last week. I am getting a huge discrepancy. The seneye is reading very high which is hard to believe. It has left me confused which is correct.

Well now I really need to test that out aswell

 

[Laith]

I started with the Seneye which was fine to give me a general idea of my PAR levels in my previous smaller tank.

The problem with the Seneye is that the measures it gives can go way off if you are not holding the sensor level at the measuring point. If you're holding it at an angle to the light source it gives you inaccurate numbers.

When I upgraded to my current tank which is 90cm deep the Seneye was no longer a reliable option as it is difficult to hold it level (horizontal) in a deeper tank.

So for peace of mind in my current tank setup I purchased the Apogee MQ-510 which can accurately measure PAR at a wider range of angles. Plus I don't need to have it connected to my laptop to take readings as you need to do with the Seneye.

I'm glad I purchased the Apogee and feel more confident with the PAR numbers I measure in my tank. That being said, after the first couple of measurements I don't feel the need to measure PAR that often, especially since I've managed to avoid "fiddling" with my LED parameters all the time.

If I could have just rented an Apogee whenever I felt the need I would have gone with that option. But I'm glad I've got it as I feel I can rely on what it's telling me when I do use it.

 

[paul barker]

I guess I am just lucky my LFS coral sea let me have his for a couple days and when we started to build 180 he came over and helped me put it all Together per,flow

 

[Freenow54]

Just wondering what the Apogee is worth. I looked at some, way out of my league even though I feel lighting is ultra important. That said you should only need it once. I would love to buy one if there was a market to set up customers tanks

 

[Tamberav]

I rented one once when I had leds. A local club has one they borrow out too.

I now use T5 over a shallow tank and never checked par. Everything is happy. I don’t feel a need to check it. The lights are not adjustable other then moving the fixture up and down and T5 tend to just be a no brainer... it just works type of light.

 

[Freenow54]

I have a razor light has 4 time, and intensity settings. For my new tank I bought 2 M8's. You can download an app and have 6 color settings to play with and can also program intensity plus 10 time periods through the day. Actually 8 since you have to start, and end with zeros. It has a bar graph, and a sine wave graph. Pretty fun

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I have a Seneye. I'm still not sure I trust it, though. I feel like it is reading a little high. It did reveal a fairly significant hot spot where my AI Primes intersect, though.

To answer the original question, yes, I do think it's an important tool to have. You really can't tell by just looking. When your favorite new coral gets burned the damage is done. And tanks are all different so you can't just go by someone else's readings. Something like adding carbon might increase your water clarity and increase par.

I recommend that anyone using a Seneye either build or buy (lots of people 3d printing) a stick mount for taking readings. When you're trying to get it positioned right and keep your arm out of the way and check your computer all at once, you'll be really glad you did!

 

[redfishbluefish]

I've been using what I call the Poorman's PAR meter......a LUX meter. For me it was hard justifying spending 3-400 dollars on a piece of equipment that I'd use for ten minutes and then not touch again until I got new lights. Yes, I'm cheap. However, @saltyfilmfolks wrote a number of posts on how to use a LUX meter and convert those numbers to PAR....especially for LED lights. I consider saltyfilmfolks an expert on lighting and unfortunately he hasn't been on the site in some time. Anyway, a LUX meter only cost around $15 (and I just looked and the one I purchased is now $18), and I could afford that! I used this in setting up my new lights I got about four years ago and worked like a champ. Bottom line, we measure everything else in our tank, and lighting should be one of those things we measure as well. If I remember my LUX numbers correctly, for LED's you want a LUX around 25K, and for very high light corals, maxing out at 40K. If interested I'm sure you can search on saltyfilmfolks for the number of posts he made about using a LUX meter. HERE is but one example from Salty.

And, if anybody is interested, THIS IS THE LUX METER I HAVE.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

I bought the apogee one that plugs into a laptop to save some money over buying the whole meter.

If you have thousands into the coral and tank honestly $350 to buy one or $70 bucks or so to rent one is barely a dent in the budget to ensure the best possible environment for you corals and probably the most important aspect for growth. Not to mention if you bought one you could always sell it to get most your money back.

If you're buying a high power led, like a hydra64 or new radion id say its almost a necessity. I cranked up my hrydra 64s to max and could blanket my tank in 1000par which wouldve easily fried everything. Unfortunately this is also what some people do when they get leds and then dont understand why their corals arent doing as good and go back to t5s and metal halides.

With the par meter i was able to dial in my new hydras perfectly. I realized some corals i thought had good light were actually severely lacking, and some were vice-versa. Growth was instantly more noticeable after setting up par levels. I also have 2 display tanks and a frag tank so it justified the purchase even more haha

 

[Pistondog]

Apogee mq510 with the sensor stick. Use it once a month or so.
Never have to wonder if that coral is getting enough or too much light.