I am admittedly new to the whole question of measuring PAR. I have a 150 (36" tall) tank with three Kessil 360's on it that I bought used. I was told that the Kessil's would be "good for any type of coral that (I) want to keep."
I have made the usual beginner mistakes with over-feeding, working to get nutrients and other factors stable, coral predation by fish and just understanding the chemistry involved. Two years in, I have had okay luck with LPS, but struggled with SPS.
That was when I thought to check my PAR on my lights just to see where I stand. I purchased and have been running the PAR monitoring module for APEX for several weeks now. I have had the sensor placed at a depth of 8" and the light is 5" above the water. As you can see from the images, the most PAR I get is around 70.
When I first set up the lights, Kessil recommended an intensity and color graph which I have followed. A screen shot is attached.
Should I be ramping up the light more to gain the 250+ PAR that everyone seems to recommend for SPS? Any suggestions would be great. Also, any information about using the APEX PAR module would be appreciated. It seems a little bit odd that it is supposed to be plug and play with no calibration?
Thanks reefers!
I have made the usual beginner mistakes with over-feeding, working to get nutrients and other factors stable, coral predation by fish and just understanding the chemistry involved. Two years in, I have had okay luck with LPS, but struggled with SPS.
That was when I thought to check my PAR on my lights just to see where I stand. I purchased and have been running the PAR monitoring module for APEX for several weeks now. I have had the sensor placed at a depth of 8" and the light is 5" above the water. As you can see from the images, the most PAR I get is around 70.
When I first set up the lights, Kessil recommended an intensity and color graph which I have followed. A screen shot is attached.
Should I be ramping up the light more to gain the 250+ PAR that everyone seems to recommend for SPS? Any suggestions would be great. Also, any information about using the APEX PAR module would be appreciated. It seems a little bit odd that it is supposed to be plug and play with no calibration?
Thanks reefers!