par or lux meter?

I picked up one of these Poor Man's Spectrometer, Inwall gave me the link to it. Can't beat it for under $30.

 

we use PAR as lux and lumen can be achieved from bulb manufacturer..
but quantum meters are more effective to understand what is the position a coral prefer and if it has too much or too few light for zooxantels and photosintesys

 

An interesting article, but as far as I am concerned is very incomplete.
You would get people drawing conclusions like, "It doesn't matter what bulbs you use as long as it has a high lux value."
When people who have been in this hobby for many many years will tell you otherwise.
I feel there are many, many other variables involved, and since the article was written in 2002 I am sure there has been a lot of debate on it since then.

Jim

 

diver:
i agree, it was just an interesting article involving this subject and everything is always open for debate

?
if you have the correct PAR does that mean you automatically have the correct LUX

 

Never mind I'll not take the top of of this can of worms

 

Yes, debate is good when it leads to creative thinking and towards the advancement of the hobby.

Simply put, I would say yes.

I will agree with you there. Sometimes you don't want to expend the time or energy to discuss something that has already been hashed out many times or type in something that will be misconstrued or twisted by someone else.
I am trying not to put words in your mouth

Jim

 

no..
lux and par arent directly connected..
so you can have the right lux but not the right par..

the best example is the 6500K bulbs compared to a 20k kelvin..

if you have a 250W 6500K you have the right par and some lumen you need for the coral "xyz" but if you have the 400W 20.000K lamp.. you have nearly the same lux.. but not enough par for the "xyz" coral as it miss some light frequency and then some "road" to move "fito-power" to the coral..

so light colour.. lumen/lux and par need to be all 3 the right one for the coral.. not just one..

 

ding, in this corner we have

diver

and in this corner we have

notturnia

tangster and i are going to sit in the corner and watch, i just love trick questions

 

You can't say I didn't try the short and simple method
I buy metal halides based on the PAR values I have seen posted by what I consider reliable sources. And also by recommendations by fellow reefers that I trust, because they have seen significant improvements over other bulbs. That being said (don't you just love old timer expressions) Par and lux are directly related to a point They are both measurements of light intensity (energy). I could post the definitions but it would take me another 10 minutes Par is the usable light energy for photosynthesis and lux is just plain old light intensity wavelengths capable of affecting the human eye.
Your question was "if you have the correct PAR does that mean you automatically have the correct LUX"
So the simply put, "yes" answer made sense to me because I do not buy bulbs based on the lumen/Lux values. This means if the bulb has the right PAR then I don't care, or as far as i am concerned it has the correct LUX also. See what I mean?

Jim

And on top of all of what I just said, The light also has to be pleasing to my eyes as well or else I won't buy it. The old Iwasaki bulbs had huge amounts of PAR but looked like yellow crap to me. I kinda like a bluer color, as I am not raising saltwater stock for sale. I just want it to look nice in my home aquarium.