Par readings on my TaoTronics 120W LED's

FTS 3.17.13 Photo by TexasTodd_photo | Photobucket

My Regional club www.WisconsinReefSociety.com has a PAR meter memebers can borrow to check their lights, so I did.

I have 2 of these, hung with the centers of the lights 36" apart, and 5.5" off the water when I took these readings.

At 1" under the light in the air- they put out about 2980PAR

These reading are with the lights hung about 5.5" off the water, and I had not been running a filter sock on the system for months- still pretty clear water however.

 

So is that 100% output, or are they dimmed down?

 

Nice Todd.
I don't recall seeing anyone that actually did that with the taotronics units.

I'm leaning towards the reef breeders controllable myself for the next upgrade when ever that is!

 

Dimmed down? There are NO dimmers on my lights!
The '375' is 8 inches underwater, with all my powerheads and RP on.

Good call, probably be my next lights too. I'd really like some dimmable, multi color, more blue lights too.

 

Thanks for the data. Did you round the values off for each side? It is unusual to see two different fixtures give off exactly the same PAR, usually there is some variation.

 

I thought they'd be different too! I kinda thought they even looked different brightness on my DT! I even swapped them side to side a few times over the year.

Nope, they were pretty much the same readings. Because in moving water, the Par # varies, I had to mentally average the higher numbers.

I feel it's pretty accurate. I put it an inch from the light- in the air and got about 2980PAR

The next day, after running a filter sock/bag on the return to the sump for over a day I took the readings again. I had also raised the lights about an inch and a half.
Even with the very slightly cleaner water, I still couldn't get those #'s, because I had raised the lights to 7inches off the water. I it was close however.
My TaoTronics do have the 120degree optics- not the best choice IMHO.

 

Funny, I was reading on an "expert" site a while back, and they claimed that wattage means nothing unless your tank is greater than 3 meters deep. I think the numbers speak for themselves.

Yeah, the biggest difference (again, from what I've read :) between 120s and no optics at all is that the light must penetrate the lens. Wonder if you would get a little better numbers without them? Just a thought.

BTW, thanks for sharing. That's some valuable info.

 

The numbers bounce around constantly on the meter, especially with the flow on.

My numbers are similar but lower since I keep my lights about 11" off of the water atm.

Todd, are these numbers with or without the "tape mod"?

 

For those that don't know, the 'tape mod' was taping over some of the white LED's, or putting strips of blue and purple plastic over them to change the light and bring out more of the blues.

These readings Were: Without the tape mod.

I did clean the splash cover on the lights before testing also.

 

Ive got a pair of these things over my frag tank and they are awesome!

Cant beat them for the price and they are PAR Monsters!