mysterybox;517921 wrote: OK, not a great pic, but that's not the purpose.............
here are my par readings on a 85 gallon, 23 inch deep tank with 2, 400 switchable galaxy ballasts with 2 400 watt EVC 20k bulbs. From what I understand, the 20k bulbs have a higher PAR than stated, true?
I guess I'm switching to Radiums, but how does this look to you boys and girls? Ok? Bad? Good? What?
(Especially David, but all are invited to post............whatdja think?)
Thanks for looking!
I'll use Helios/EVC interchangably because they are supposedly the same bulb manufactured for two different resellers.
Ralph,
Your par numbers at the top center (800/700) under each reflector looks about what I was getting with my setup when I used 400 watt EVC/Helios with CoralVue electric ballasts. I got about 780/760 there (1" under the water). I switched to Radium 400 watt 20Ks and those same numbers in the same spot were 1260/1280 as measured with Keen Reef's Apogee Quantum Meter. The Radiums are PAR Monsters compared to the EVC's. I like the Helios/EVC rendition better by a bit than that of Radiums, but I think Radiums are the best combination of PAR and good color in a 20K 400 watt bulb.
Your other PAR numbers seem a bit low to me, as others have stated.
Other ARC members who know their stuff like Dave (Grouper Therapy) use Helios/EVC with magnetic ballasts and report great par Numbers, so the PAR out of an EVC bulb may depend greatly on the type of ballast running it, but since we both have electronic ballasts, I will assume our ballasts will be somewhat similar. And I think your ballast is of good quality.
One area you may want to consider changing is your reflector. I don't have a lot of experience with your Hamilton relfectors, but they look kind of small to me. You may be losing some light that you could reflect down into the tank. I would look at either LumenMax Elites or Coralvue Lumenbright reflectors, as these seem to be the most popular. I use LB large reflectors and they make use of a lot of light that otherwise might get wasted. Folks that don't have the vertical space above the tanks for LB reflectors use Lumenmaxx, as they can be centered much close to the water than Lumenbrights can. Either of these would work well for you.
I think you would see a decent jump in your mid and lower tank PAR numbers with a larger reflector as well, even if you stayed with EVC lights.
If/when you do swith to Radiums, make sure you ease the tank into them with a reduced photoperiod. And be doubly careful if you go to LM Elites or CV LB reflectors AND Radium bulbs.
I remember when I switched from a 2x 250 watt DE halide/4x 54 watt T5 Current USA Outer Orbit fixture (716 watts total) to 2 x 250 watt Helios bulbs/LB mini pendants/CV ballasts (500 watts total), I killed three acroporas with the increased intensity of the light. I had to go to a 4 hour photoperiod and increase it 30 minutes each week until I reached 8 hours. Had to do the same thing when I switched the 250s to 400 watt ballasts and Radium 400 watt bulbs.
Dave
