PAR Levels?
- Thread starter SquidBreath
- Start date
PAR, LUX and Lumens only tell a portion of the story, and not even the most interesting part... but it is cool.
Assuming that you have a quality light source, then around 100 in the sand and 250 up top is probably good. I am not a zoa guy, but I do have fruit loops, rastas, tubbs and some blue hornets at around 500 PAR and they grow like crazy under MH. However, they don't need that much.
I have never used the club meter, but a few inches under the water in direct sunlight in Missouri got me about 950 on a meter that I borrowed. For reference, my tank was 550-575 max a few inches under the water on this meter. I imagine that you would want to use the same meter for any comparison for the best results, so take these with a grain of salt.
My own observations here, but WQ is more important than light with Z/P.
Assuming that you have a quality light source, then around 100 in the sand and 250 up top is probably good. I am not a zoa guy, but I do have fruit loops, rastas, tubbs and some blue hornets at around 500 PAR and they grow like crazy under MH. However, they don't need that much.
I have never used the club meter, but a few inches under the water in direct sunlight in Missouri got me about 950 on a meter that I borrowed. For reference, my tank was 550-575 max a few inches under the water on this meter. I imagine that you would want to use the same meter for any comparison for the best results, so take these with a grain of salt.
My own observations here, but WQ is more important than light with Z/P.
Ok, so I have been preparing for my turn with the meter and I have been researching what kind of par reading is appropriate for the corals I will keep and I have seen some people saying 50+ for softies, 100+ for LPS, and 150+ for SPS, but each type varies etc. But then others say 50-300 soft, 100-300 LPS, and 100-500+ for SPS. There is a pretty big difference between 150 and 500, so is this a unit conversion issue, a meter style issue, or just that this is another thing where it's a ton of personal preference?
There are too many factors to generalize ideal levels, IMHO. Yes photoinhibition occurs when you expose corals to too much light, as it effects their metabolism and ability to thrive in the system.
Light, nutrients, and flow all play a huge role in determining how happy your corals are. I've had zoas in my nanocube (skimmer, dosing, GFO, MH lights) under a PAR of 200 look unhappy because they were getting too much light, and I moved them down to a PAR of about 100. In my new tank (LED, no skimming, no GFO)...those same zoas stretched at the bottom of the tank and are now directly under the LEDs getting hammered with light and look to be in better condition than they were in the cube.
I think PAR is helpful in giving your tank a workable "gradient" for coral placement...but trying to pinpoint an ideal number to place a given coral seems to be fruitless from what I've seen. As long as you're within an acceptable range, you should be fine.
FWIW, I have zoas in my 20 that are almost completely shaded and thriving that close up completely and melt when exposed to direct light...
Light, nutrients, and flow all play a huge role in determining how happy your corals are. I've had zoas in my nanocube (skimmer, dosing, GFO, MH lights) under a PAR of 200 look unhappy because they were getting too much light, and I moved them down to a PAR of about 100. In my new tank (LED, no skimming, no GFO)...those same zoas stretched at the bottom of the tank and are now directly under the LEDs getting hammered with light and look to be in better condition than they were in the cube.
I think PAR is helpful in giving your tank a workable "gradient" for coral placement...but trying to pinpoint an ideal number to place a given coral seems to be fruitless from what I've seen. As long as you're within an acceptable range, you should be fine.
FWIW, I have zoas in my 20 that are almost completely shaded and thriving that close up completely and melt when exposed to direct light...
Ok. I am just finishing up a build and am trying to finalize how I want to do my lighting. Ideally I would be able to stick with just my 3 AI sol blues on a 72*18*30 tank, but I have a Kessil 350w i can add if needed. So what you're saying is is that I should just use the readings for comparison so that a high light acropora is placed in an area of higher Par than my green birdsnest, not necessarily that my crocea clam should be at 523 PAR exactly?
