Kessil A350 PAR readings

I posted this in my build thread, but figured the information be may more accessible here.

These are admittedly crudely done. The measurements were taken in water, with the A350 (non-wide) suspended 3" above the water line and both channels were at 100%. I used a Walz 4pi spherical PAR sensor/meter. This meter is one of the most commonly used PAR sensors in scientific literature on phytoplankton.



Since the light is so close to the water surface, the readings 1" below the surface and 5" to the side of the light are quite low as the PAR sensor was on the outskirts of the light beam.

Higher readings at 17" than 8.5" below the water surface at 5" to the side are probably due to the beam width. At 8.5" below the surface the PAR sensor was probably closer to the outskirts of the beam than at 17", where the PAR sensor was more towards the beams center.

Overall I am impressed with the PAR readings. I'd like to raise the light off of the water more, however it is difficult to do that and still have the light close to the center of the tank due to the length of the Kessil mounting arm.

 

That's some impressive output!