Interesting PAR readings

[Gregcoyote]

Well I finally broke down and bought my own PAR meter. And had some surprising results. All these readings were from LEDs.

The algae scrubber has some magenta LEDs as well as white and blue. It measured from 550-800 PAR.

My frag tank measured 300 at the top and 240 at the bottom, about 12" deep. Am going to amp up the light on this system as it is for SPS mostly. But many hard corals are growing fine even at this level.

The display tank is 32" deep, so this one was surprising.

First picture is colt coral in a dark area on the bottom, PAR 75

Second picture is frogspawn under a ledge, PAR 150

Third picture is a Cap, PAR 250

Fourth is a small rapidly growing purple tip acro that is shaded, PAR 220

More pictures and measurements later

 

[Gregcoyote]

First picture is some various SPS, PAR 350

2 picture is GSP on the bottom center, PAR 110

3 picture is waving hand, PAR 150

4 is a green torch, PAR 180

5 picture is a green leather coral on the bottom corner, PAR 90

6 picture is a green hammer coral, PAR 150

7 picture is smooth red mushrooms, PAR 20-PAR 200, really a broad range and size of mushroom depended on the PAR.

8 is a violet tipped acro frag that is growing nicely on the rack in the display tank, PAR 250

So it is interesting that I don't have as much PAR as I thought I did, but everything seems to be growing fine. Most gurus say that you need a PAR of 74-150 on the bottom, so I think I have that working.

Display tank is 280-300 gallons and has 540 watts of LED. May add 200 watts more.

 

[Hardridge]

I have a 110-120 about 32-33 deep I have 360 watts of led about foot above water and corals are doing great

 

[Convict2161]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing, corals look amazing!