Complete PAR survey of my Tank

I recently rented a PAR meter from my local fish store and spent a day measuring and gathering PAR readings from around my mixed reef tank. I wanted to get a complete picture of how the two 160w Maxspect Razors (R420r) LED lights hanging over my tank interacted with the rock work so that I could make the best choices possible when placing corals.

I took a lot of measurements. I tried to get a reading for just about every nook and cranny I could fit the PAR meter’s sensor into - more than 40 positions. I also took measurements for each position at each of the settings at each of the 6 time points in my program. Like I said - a lot of measurements ;D

I thought I might share it, just in case it comes in handy to anyone else. particularly to Maxspect razor owners, since those are the type of lights I'm running over this tank.

Below is a JPG and a high-res PDF of the PAR map I came up with

what do you think?

 

That seems like it was a lot of work. Definitely can be useful when selecting the position for certain corals depending on light tolerance.

For this to be useful to other owners, I think that providing the dimensions of your tank, the height of your light fixtures and the distance between the fixtures will give the most information on how this setup may relate to others'. Just my .02.

 

LOL - it was a lot of work, but it was certainly fun and interesting to do.
I agree dimensional info would be helpful, so here you go.

• The tank is a standard 125 - 72 long x 18 Deep, 22ish high
• The lights sit about 5" inches apart
• and it might be hard to see on the JPG, but the diagram shows the height from the water (7.5 inches) and the distance from the light to the sand bed (about 25-26 inches)
  
  I've also marked the tank image with 1" increments and "open-water" PAR measurements from the top to the bottom during peak light output.

 

Great job! That's some valuable info. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks Mr. Bill - I'm glad you found it useful.

In case anyone is interested, I also did a quick write-up on the process I took to get these measurements on my blog at: Par Measurements | OnlyTono

 

Wonderful! That is awesome.

 

Wow thats impressive.
Pretty crazy how much difference in par there is only a few inches away from each other.

 

lol you just like graphic design admit it. Sharp looking presentation though.

 

Nice tank!!!8)
Thanks for sharing that info.

 

ya I thought the same thing. That's actually one of the reason I wanted to do this. Although the lights are really nice and deliver lots of power, they produce a pretty harsh shadow as opposed to say a T5, or even a LED strip light that provides a more ambient light source.

My rock work has a lot of over hangs and areas that create shadow, so for me, this was really import to get as much info as possible.

...and then there's always that ;D
yes - yes I do like graphic design - I admit it....

I really do hope this is helpful for others. it's been helpful for me already. I have a small brown/red and Green candy cane frag that was not looking so good. it was receding, and in general not puffing up.

I started acclimating it in the area of measurement C1. I ended up trying it closer to the top, but at position T1 - a little more than half the PAR levels. The frag has perked up and is starting to look pretty good