Fun with the PAR meter - T5, Metal Halide and PC numbers

[cameron]

Probably going to drop the GE bulb... not real sure yet. I am happy enough right now.

 

[wbholwell]

Man, Cameron, that's pretty good! Now I'm regretting selling my IC 660 before I ever wired it up.

 

[cameron]

They are very impressive. I want to see the dimable version hooked up. Not sure how it works, but that could be pretty cool.

 

[sammy33]

Roland Jacques;132351 wrote: Are the lamps on the lower photo, 54 watts or 39 watts? And thier driven by normal 54/39 watt ballasts, right?

They are all 39w lamps with advance ballasts. I have four rows with two lamps in each row.

 

[sammy33]

Cameron - Looks the overdriving really punches the par to the bottom. I see only about a 50% drop in PAR on the bottom from the surface. Nice. :yes:

Now you have the joy of swapping around different bulb spectrums to get "your mix". Some like an extra Blue+ or maybe even throw in one of the pink/red Procolor or ge 3000K. T5's are just lots of fun and very effective too.

 

[jaustin]

Sammy I have two plusrite 10K halide 175w bulbs with advanced mag ballasts with hellolights reflectors. I also have two 20K plusrite blubs that i can test.

Would love to see the par of these $20 bulbs.

 

[jaustin]

I also have 1 175w se plusrite 14K, i can test all three available

 

[harleyguy]

I would love to get a PAR meter as well, where can you get them? Who makes them? What do they usually run?

I can't wait to test the par on my tank... 8x400w 20K MH 18x54w 12K T5

 

[sammy33]

alt="" />

Haninja'a 46g bowfront (18" deep) with two 175w Iwasaki 14K, standard magnetic ballast, DIY wing reflector, 10" off the water and 2mos old. 2x 39w T5 Actinic+ and Pure Actinic with T5 ballasts and positioned inside the wing refector shared with the halide lamps.

Note that this is the highest positioned lamps on any tank that I have tested so far. The light spread on this setup is very good with the super wide reflector on this system. The corals in this tank are all very nicely colored and the whole tank had a very nice glow with the Iwasaki's and Geissemann T5's. The high lamp position of 10" off the water affords this size tank cool operation but at the expense of PAR. The PAR about 4" under the Iwasaki's is over 1200! Hanin is planning on lowering the lights to about 5" in his new tank he is setting so I will have to re-measure the PAR. I think these Iwasaki's may turn out to be one of the better 175w mogul lamps available.

 

[jaustin]

my halides are about a foot off the water, would it benefit me to lower the bulbs.....would it really help that much?

 

[haninja]

Thanks for coming over Sam. It was a pleasure meeting you again.

 

[victor626nj]

ok so i was able to get readings on my t5 set up the reflectors are a bit dirty with salt creep but the numbers came out pretty good....i am using 6 t5 4 are ever driven by a ice cap 660 and the other two are on a work horse 5 here is a layout of my lights and the par readings
<fieldset class="gc-fieldset">
<legend> Attached files </legend>

>

class="gc-images" title="config i like for now 1 1.bmp_Thumbnail1.jpg[/IMG] style="max-width:300px" /></a>

>

class="gc-images" title="par readings.JPG_Thumbnail1.jpg[/IMG] style="max-width:300px" /></a> </fieldset>

 

[sammy33]

JAustin;143170 wrote: my halides are about a foot off the water, would it benefit me to lower the bulbs.....would it really help that much?

You will get an increase in PAR with the lamps closer to the water. In most cases with 250w MH heat becomes much more of an issue. If you feel you are not getting enough light lowering your lamps may be a good solution as opposed to upgrading.

Victor626nj;148256 wrote: ok so i was able to get readings on my t5 set up the reflectors are a bit dirty with salt creep but the numbers came out pretty good....i am using 6 t5 4 are ever driven by a ice cap 660 and the other two are on a work horse 5 here is a layout of my lights and the par readings

Thank you for sharing your numbers. I think you are getting almost the same performance from this T5 setup (with less watts) that you had with your MH setup. Very nice.

 

[victor626nj]

yeah less power and i am about 4-6 inches above the surface of the water unlike the mh i was about 3 lol

 

[purplegorilla]

So there aren't any reading from a LED fixture or PlusRite lamps from Ebay? Who has an LED fixture and lives near Duluth, I can come over with my Par meter.

 

[victor626nj]

thrin i need to clean my reflectors ...but sometime this week can you get a better reading of my t5 set up

 

[purplegorilla]

Victor626nj;149054 wrote: thrin i need to clean my reflectors ...but sometime this week can you get a better reading of my t5 set up

Depends on:
1. what days
2. spell my name and pronounce it right

 

[victor626nj]

any day thats good with you .....and **** i forgot how to spell it but i know how to say it ...trihn i think :doh: and your last name is even harder lol

 

[FutureInterest]

lol. I believe its Trinh Nguyen? The last name sounds kind of like "Win", the Ng sound is tricky .

 

[victor626nj]

lol its not a very common name but i know how to say it just spelling of mine sucks lol