P.A.R. Values and Zooxanthellae

The apogee PAR meter is the best bet. It is around $330.00.

Our local reef club will probably be getting one soon. One member in our club had one and we took several readings from members tanks.

 

thats a hefty price tag, maybee i can find someone local who has one to pass around

 

yeah a meter would be a cool thing to play with, but cant see shelling out that kinda money for something i would probably use once, well might use it to figure out if my bulbs are getting to old. a large database with par values for bulb, fixture combinations. as well as specific lighting requirments for aquarium corals would be cool.

 

for values based on different ballast combos:
Testing 250-watt Single-ended Metal Halide Lamps and Ballasts by Joe Burger - Reefkeeping.com

 

I think the best way to explain PAR is photosynthetically active radiation.

 

If you want a cheaper meter to tell of your bulbs are getting old, use a LUX meter.

We had a database of PAR values in each member's tank that we had catalogued, and the corals were pictured, so one could use the pictures to let you know where to place certain types of corals based on how they did in the member's tanks.

Then our old webmaster hosed us and stole our info. Now we have our own site, operated by our members. So while we have the PAR numbers on the pictures of the member's tanks, we don't have the specifics about the tanks anymore.

Oh well, we will get out database of PAR readings and info going once we get another meter. Should be sometime this Spring I assume.

 

That would be great to see!

Does anyone know where to find a listing of recommended PAR values by coral species? I have been trying for the past few days to find a good resource with little success. (the best I have found is to take Sprung's values and multiply by 100)

 

I need to read up on all these links...this is starting to get confusing.

Light intensity would be measured using a LUX meter. This is the light that is visible to the eye. The measurement for visible light is nanoMeters and optimal color temperature for corals is 420-470nm.

How do we know the nm measurement of a 6500k bulb?

PAR is measured using a par meter & is the photosynthetically active radiation(measured in uMol/m^2/sec.), that the corals use, thanks to their zoox, to complete the process of photosynthesis.

I know that the optimal par will certainly depend on the specific coral species, but the recommended par ratings in an SPS dominant reef are about 400-700uMol/m^2/sec.? How is this, if as stated above, that in most natural(as in real) reefs(generalizing right now) the par is only about 200uMol/m^2/second?

I am trying to do a research project on coral growth with 3 Boost LED bulbs & want to compare this to that of a metal halide. I will probably use several tanks/lights from past experiments to compare to.

Should make for a good research paper...

 

bump.