PAR Meter???
- Larry Grenier
- Posts: 284
- Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2004 5:31 pm
- Location: Manassas, VA, USA, Earth
PAR Meter???
Is anyone aware of an inexpensive yet reliable PAR meter? I'm using LEDs so I don't even have much of a WPG rule starting point as bad as that rule goes.
My tank is (L)42" X (W)24" X (H)22" and I have 36 3W Crees with an additional 7 3W Crees in the middle of the day. RapidLED, where I bought my kits, recommends 33 for a 120 which is a little bigger than mine.
My tank is (L)42" X (W)24" X (H)22" and I have 36 3W Crees with an additional 7 3W Crees in the middle of the day. RapidLED, where I bought my kits, recommends 33 for a 120 which is a little bigger than mine.
Last edited by Larry Grenier on Thu Mar 10, 2016 1:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Larry Grenier,
Manassas, VA
Manassas, VA
Re: PAR Meter???
I'm looking to purchase one of these as well. Great question.
- Cristy Keister
- Posts: 2119
- Joined: Sat Nov 29, 2003 6:52 am
- Location: MD
Re: PAR Meter???
The club has one to borrow.
Re: PAR Meter???
The rapid led calculator is a bit high in my opinion. Unless you want a very high light tank I would use half to 3/4 of the led they recommend.
Re: PAR Meter???
Well, it depends. There's a lot of room for customization. For example, you can add more and under drive them, prolonging the life, reducing heat, and getting a more even spread of light, or adding in different color LEDs to adjust the color cast. Also, lenses make a tremendous difference of PAR in deeper tanks.
- Larry Grenier
- Posts: 284
- Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2004 5:31 pm
- Location: Manassas, VA, USA, Earth
Re: PAR Meter???
I'm using a mix of Warm White (6500K-ish), Cool white (10,000k-ish), and a few Reds, Greens, and Blues. I have no lenses to get the widest spread. My tank is new and plants are growing and so is algaekrisw wrote:Well, it depends. There's a lot of room for customization. For example, you can add more and under drive them, prolonging the life, reducing heat, and getting a more even spread of light, or adding in different color LEDs to adjust the color cast. Also, lenses make a tremendous difference of PAR in deeper tanks.
Larry Grenier,
Manassas, VA
Manassas, VA
- Larry Grenier
- Posts: 284
- Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2004 5:31 pm
- Location: Manassas, VA, USA, Earth
Re: PAR Meter???
I was curious about price anyway.Cristy Keister wrote:The club has one to borrow.
Larry Grenier,
Manassas, VA
Manassas, VA
Re: PAR Meter???
The Apogee model the club has runs about $350... Reliable/accurate are funny things. Nick from BuildMyLED said at the AGA that you need to spend $1000+ for accurate PAR meters. When pressed, the Apogee is +/- 5-10 PAR in most cases. There are folks online who have converted cheaper lux meters to get PAR estimates. I'm not sure how those compare...
- Larry Grenier
- Posts: 284
- Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2004 5:31 pm
- Location: Manassas, VA, USA, Earth
Re: PAR Meter???
Ouch, I'm not buying onekrisw wrote:The Apogee model the club has runs about $350... Reliable/accurate are funny things. Nick from BuildMyLED said at the AGA that you need to spend $1000+ for accurate PAR meters. When pressed, the Apogee is +/- 5-10 PAR in most cases. There are folks online who have converted cheaper lux meters to get PAR estimates. I'm not sure how those compare...
Larry Grenier,
Manassas, VA
Manassas, VA
Re: PAR Meter???
Yea, that's a little out of my budget at the moment HAHAH. How does one go about borrowing the PAR meter from the club?