My par reading

Thanks to my local reef club I got my hands on a PAR meter for today/tonight and part of tomorrow. I did some quick readings and thought I would share what I observed. For my set up.

I have 2 AI SOL blues running at about 50% power and are hung about 8.5 inches AWL. But the kicker is that I did something a little different from your standard optics that come with and SOL.

A standard sol's optics looks like this: 70 40 40 70
70 40 40 70


Now here is what I did with mine. Two of them in a row like this:

40 70 40 70----70 40 70 40
40 70 40 70----70 40 70 40

So , I took some quick readings before lights started to dim for the evening and took the probe across the sand bed at the very front of the glass and averaged a PAR of about 120. Some spots were higher due to the 40 degrees and some were lower due to the 70 degrees so I just averaged it out in my head.

Anyways, I can and will do a full slew of testing tomorrow for anyone curious.

Out of curiosity i kicked the AI's up to 100% and at peak I saw just over 400 on the sand bed.

 

depth from light to bed?

but dang 120 to 400? 400 at sand bed would make top??? lol

 

Very nice!!!! I wish PAR meters were cheaper.

I tested my lights and pushed 520 at the sand at 100%.

 

Light to sand bed is at 23 inches. I just measured, I had my light closer to the tank than I thought, must have moved it down at some point. 8.5 inches AWL

 

What % do you usually run?

 

25% now.

 

Also keep in mind I added an extra 12 LEDs since I first built my light, I'm sure its a lot higher now.

 

Well 25% with that setup is perfectly fine I'm sure.