Whats your par?

[brick-brothers]

I just did my par reading. I'm running (3) 400w mh ( I know I know, electric bill is killing me, lol) on my 220 sps dominant tank. From the floor to the top of the water it measured at 22". So what I did was measure every 5-1/2". From the water surface my par is around 800, 16-1/2" down its around 590. 11" down its around 385, 5-1/2" down its around 325 and the bottom is around 220. My sps seems to be doing great tho 3/4 sps are alil brown. So I wanted to know what par levels are good for sps growth and color. And whats your par? Pix of your tank would be great.

 

[jackson6745]

Manny I'm about the same as you with a 400w radium.

 

[JBNY]

I use 250 watt MH, at the top of my rocks (about 3/4 up) I measure about 450 the bottom rock work is about 300. I don't measure at the water surface because I can't put corals there, same with the sand bed.

In all honesty you need only need about 200 PAR to get good coloration and growth on many corals, Higher numbers can do better with lots of SPS but I always have had good luck with colorful corals at the bottom of the tank as much as when I place them higher.

 

[greengny]

Joe, what is the distance from your Radium to the top of the water?

 

[bkstang]

Par

I have Maxpect Razor 160W 16k and this is my reading. First at 50% White and 100% Blue and the 2nd is 60% White and 100% Blue.
Measurement was made about 2 years ago. I don't run these light that high. Usually up to 50%White and 90% Blue and only at peak time around noon for short period of time. I have a clam and mostly LPS.

 

[JBNY]

Joe, what is the distance from your Radium to the top of the water?

about 10 inches.

 

[ReefWreak]

I wish I knew, I've been looking to borrow one for a while but it came up dry in the general discussion section. Great seeing other peoples' results though.

I think my issue isn't the amount of light I'm getting, but how focused even LEDs without lenses are, in that I'm pretty sure my PAR drops like a rock when I get outside the immediate area of light coverage. Fortunately that isn't much area since it's a biocube.

 

[vio]

I think is very important , what Pendant Light use, some may give 700-900 PARs but NOT large cover, i run 3 400 W MH, i will take reading tomorrow.

 

[bklynreef]

I think is very important , what Pendant Light use, some may give 700-900 PARs but NOT large cover, i run 3 400 W MH, i will take reading tomorrow.

Vio is so on target with what hes saying. As you all know or mabe not I went back to MH from my Radion pros. I still had my LumenMax 2 that i tried to sell for nothing and no one wanted them. Now you cant even find them and i was ready to pay any price for the one I sold. Yes i found one from ebay and paid happil for it.
Spider fixtures give you hot spots, the better made reflectors dont since they are german made with hammered type aluminum so you dont get basically a mirror with hotspots. Anyway to get to the readings. The tank is a 36 inch deep sps dominant tank. The lights at the moment are 18 inches off the water since im acclimating new corals from Dace and hes running ATI's. I just took a par reading and im at 300 ( not under the light but off to the side ) on the sandbed and 400 under the light on the sanbed. As i go up im at 800 6 inches from my water line. Corals seem happy with PE and much better than what i was dealing with when i was strictly Led's.
My new moto, Radiums and Radions, The Best of Both Worlds.
Now i can enjoy my R&R literally!

 

[brick-brothers]

I have 3 large lumen bright pendants that gives me a good spread.

 

[ReefWreak]

My old 120 was 2x luminarc mini reflectors with 250w radiums (and I also went through 10k XMs, 12k Reeflux, 14k Hamiltons). I have to admit everything was a lot easier under MH than LED, but for a nano and with how much I pay for electricity ($0.25/kwh out the door!) I'm fine with LED and not needing to use my chiller. If I went back to a larger tank I'd switch to MH because I feel like the PAR may not have been intense right under the bulb, but the diffusion/reflection was actually pretty valuable and easy to come by, even with some of the best reflectors available.

 

[brick-brothers]

here's a flic of my tank. I tried my best with my cell. I really need to buy a good camera, lol