PAR Meter???

Lighting, filtration etc
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Larry Grenier
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PAR Meter???

Post by Larry Grenier »

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.
Last edited by Larry Grenier on Thu Mar 10, 2016 1:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Larry Grenier,
Manassas, VA
Termato
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Re: PAR Meter???

Post by Termato »

I'm looking to purchase one of these as well. Great question.
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Cristy Keister
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Re: PAR Meter???

Post by Cristy Keister »

The club has one to borrow.
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GOT MTS?
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Re: PAR Meter???

Post by GOT MTS? »

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.
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krisw
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Re: PAR Meter???

Post by krisw »

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.
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Larry Grenier
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Re: PAR Meter???

Post by Larry Grenier »

krisw 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.
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 algae :cry:
Larry Grenier,
Manassas, VA
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Larry Grenier
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Re: PAR Meter???

Post by Larry Grenier »

Cristy Keister wrote:The club has one to borrow.
I was curious about price anyway.
Larry Grenier,
Manassas, VA
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krisw
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Re: PAR Meter???

Post by krisw »

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...
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Larry Grenier
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Re: PAR Meter???

Post by Larry Grenier »

krisw 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...
Ouch, I'm not buying one :shock:
Larry Grenier,
Manassas, VA
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Re: PAR Meter???

Post by Termato »

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?
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