Why all the talk about LUX?

[saltyfilmfolks]

I'd burn em till they died. That's great.
Love the LED for back up too.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

We still use T12's HO in some rooms at my plant just. Just replaced some yesterday.

My industry is all t12. All the new LED replacements are the same size so we don't have to change our hardware.
It took years when I first started for the engineers to find the right chemical compounds and glass tints to make a pure 32 and 55 kelvin tube.

 

[NCreefguy]

Love the LED for back up too.

Yeah that's what I told the wife. "We have to have these LEDs for supplemental lighting with our T12s "

 

[ritter6788]

Iit was my understanding that LUX isn't really of much use when talking about photosynthetic creatures and that in a reef tank discussion, we should be talking about PAR (or occasionally PUR). Is there a reason LUX is coming into conversation more often?

I've used a lux meter on every tank/light setup I've used. Not to measure output/par but for coral placement. Almost all reef lights sold today have more than enough par. It's hard to judge intensity by eyeballing it. I have a lux meter with a submersible probe. If you can grow acros in your tank in x amount of lux then you can place new acros in similar lux without having to guess if it's getting enough light.

Also if you change lights you can use a lux meter to get a rough starting point so you don't shock corals or not give them enough light.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I've used a lux meter on every tank/light setup I've used. Not to measure output/par but for coral placement. Almost all reef lights sold today have more than enough par. It's hard to judge intensity by eyeballing it. I have a lux meter with a submersible probe. If you can grow acros in your tank in x amount of lux then you can place new acros in similar lux without having to guess if it's getting enough light.

Also if you change lights you can use a lux meter to get a rough starting point so you don't shock corals or not give them enough light.

Is that the sub lux or just a hand held w a water probe

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I've used a lux meter on every tank/light setup I've used. Not to measure output/par but for coral placement. Almost all reef lights sold today have more than enough par. It's hard to judge intensity by eyeballing it. I have a lux meter with a submersible probe. If you can grow acros in your tank in x amount of lux then you can place new acros in similar lux without having to guess if it's getting enough light.

Also if you change lights you can use a lux meter to get a rough starting point so you don't shock corals or not give them enough light.

And if I may ask. Waht was your favorite sweet spot for growing in lux.
Or would I have to pay for that kind of info

 

[Daniel@R2R]

And if I may ask. Waht was your favorite sweet spot for growing in lux.
Or would I have to pay for that kind of info

I hear he charges in acros...

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I hear he charges in acros...

Eww. I guess I'm out for now
Unless he wants a frag of my Dullsville Bland!.

 

[ritter6788]

Is that the sub lux or just a hand held w a water probe

This was what I used.

And if I may ask. Waht was your favorite sweet spot for growing in lux.
Or would I have to pay for that kind of info

You could have it for free if I could remember!


I have a thread on an old local forum I can see if I can find. If it still exists.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Hahaha awesome.
The Milwaukee. Nice. Very nice actually.

 

[john.m.cole3]

I've used a lux meter on every tank/light setup I've used. Not to measure output/par but for coral placement. Almost all reef lights sold today have more than enough par. It's hard to judge intensity by eyeballing it. I have a lux meter with a submersible probe. If you can grow acros in your tank in x amount of lux then you can place new acros in similar lux without having to guess if it's getting enough light.

Also if you change lights you can use a lux meter to get a rough starting point so you don't shock corals or not give them enough light.

You sir, I like. Your post makes sense. Thank you for showing how a light meter can work for the normal reefer. I am being sincere.

 

[ritter6788]

And if I may ask. Waht was your favorite sweet spot for growing in lux.

This was from 2011 when I first got leds. They were 2x 120, 1 watt leds each over my 75 gallon. I had the best growth of any light I used with these leds. They weren't dimmable, it was on or off. I would have run them till the end but after a few years one of the fixture's whites went dim and I switched to mars aquas. After fiddling with the new lights for a while I found these old lux numbers and set my new leds to that after that growth was great again.

Here's the lux readings I got from the Evolution 120, 14k.

Directly under fixture, 95,000

Bulbs 11 inches over tank.
Just above water line 15,000
Just under water line 8,500

Bulbs 5 inches over tank.
Mid tank about 9 inches down 11,000
Middle top between the 2 lights 3,500 (This is where my acans and Favias sit)
Sandbed where my derasa 6,500.

Mostly useless info now but just showing how lux can be somewhat useful in reed keeping.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

No sir extremely useful.

lower numbers than I expected actually. But they make sense.

 

[ritter6788]

No sir extremely useful.

lower numbers than I expected actually. But they make sense.

The numbers I got from the mars aquas were about double the old 1w evolutions and that was with optics removed. They were about 10,000 additional lux with optics.

The numbers I got with the Milwaukee meter almost exactly matched my iPhone app. I just wouldn't stick my iPhone under the water. You can get a good reading above the water line though.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

The numbers I got from the mars aquas were about double the old 1w evolutions and that was with optics removed. They were about 10,000 additional lux with optics.

The numbers I got with the Milwaukee meter almost exactly matched my iPhone app. I just wouldn't stick my iPhone under the water. You can get a good reading above the water line though.

Yup that's about right.
The apps can work. But it depends on if you get lucky. I've had folks here show results at 210,000 lux. From an LED at half at 12 in. That's reading the actual LED.

 

[donnievaz]

This was what I used.



You could have it for free if I could remember!


I have a thread on an old local forum I can see if I can find. If it still exists.

So is that probe designed to be submersible or did you modify it?

 

[ritter6788]

So is that probe designed to be submersible or did you modify it?

It's designed to be submersible.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So is that probe designed to be submersible or did you modify it?

You can buy it still.

https://megadepot.com/product/milwa...e&source=ads&gclid=CP_kx4ux-88CFQ2ffgodCtwK4w

 

[ritter6788]

You can buy it still.

https://megadepot.com/product/milwa...e&source=ads&gclid=CP_kx4ux-88CFQ2ffgodCtwK4w

They are a lot cheaper now than years ago when I bought mine in 2011. I think I paid $100 or more.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

They are a lot cheaper now than years ago when I bought mine in 2011. I think I paid $100 or more.

Yea the cheap import business has taken a toll. It's nice that's stuff is cheaper but it means all we can afford is cheap stuff. No more politalnthan that pls.

I uaually only reccomend the red Amazon lux meter cuz its $13 and people are usually more accepting to try it that way.
I have light meters that run around 500 and are lab calibrated and the cheap one I have loses under 1000 lux at the high end at 100k. I'm sure some are worse.

People are funny about learning new things.