grouper therapy;481060 wrote: With the pfo HQI ballast my helios out parred the radium!
johnr2604;481070 wrote: Its also good to keep in mind that what we see in terms of color and what is actually being used by corals are two different things.
johnr2604;481070 wrote: Its also good to keep in mind that what we see in terms of color and what is actually being used by corals are two different things.
Acroholic;481075 wrote: I guess a lot has to do with the ballast. Run off a dimmable CoralVue 400 watt e-ballast in a Lumenbright Mini pendant 12 inches above still water, the Helios gave 760 PAR 1 inch under the water surface centered under the reflector, the Radium gave 1280. Readings done with Tim's Apogee quantum meter.
The PFO overdrives the Mogul bulbs, right? I just prefer the versatility of a dimmable ballast, because I can overdrive by 10%, or dim from full to
-35%.
ichthyoid;481100 wrote: Well said/great point! A lot of us get lost in these comparisons, as it can be very confusing as to what is important and for what reason(s).
Just as a FWIW,
I would not put too much importance on any single reading for PAR/lumens/lux or whatever. No reflector or bulb that I have ever seen is perfect. This includes some that were much better design/complexity used in other applications/fields. All it would take is a 'dimple' in the right spot of a reflector to cause the PAR readings to be 'off the chart'. I am personally much more comfortable with multiple readings, preferably made using a fixture/template/jig to reproduce readings in the same locations and same tank. This will get you a much better approximation of apples to apples. Others have used this method previously.
Acroholic;481156 wrote: The single reading I posted was just an example. That was just one of multiple readings at various depth levels of the tank. With my setup, the Radiums simply beat the tar out of the Helios regarding PAR at every point. With PFO ballasts, maybe another story.
If I were writing an article then perhaps a jig or something like you mentioned, I could see it. These were just some informal readings, but I doubt multiple PAR readings where the Radium consistently read higher than the Helios could all be contributed to positional error.
grouper therapy;481335 wrote: My main concern is how my corals look to me and how well they grow under any light. From past threads corals reach a saturation point anyway. If they grow they grow If they look good they look good.I don't care what the bulb cost 2 bucks or 200 bucks.
My light bill is the other concern. I switched from plusrite to the other bulbs due to the par readings being higher than the plusrite after running them a while i'm not sure that made any difference either.. But I see absolutely no difference in the growth of my corals. The fact remains that the bigger some corals get the faster they grow so it may be a matter of timing instead of the bulb as to why some people experience faster growth.
For some the plusrite may be garbage on their ballast,reflectors and tank. For me they did fine with less problems than the more expensive.