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PAR meter rental from Nextlight review


Tamberav

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Hello! I just wanted to do a quick write up on a Par meter rental as most have never heard of this company before.

 

The process is pretty straight forward, the cost is $30 for 30 days with a $495.00 deposit in case you damage the meter or fail to return it.

 

It comes in a hard sided carrying case to protect it in shipping and a wand that can be used in aquatic environments. The meter is Apogee MQ-510 Full Spectrum Underwater Quantum Meter and claims to provide excellent measurements under all lights including LED. 

 

It also comes with a prepaid return shipping label.

 

I placed my order 7pm on a Friday... on Monday I received a missed phone call of a gentlemen asking if my rental was for plants or an aquarium as it effects what type of wand they send. I returned the call and the meter was shipped that day. Service was very prompt and fast, I assume if I had not placed my order late on a Friday, it would have shipped sooner. 

 

The meter worked perfectly. I did have to look up online what the different buttons/settings did but basically just needed to use the sample button as I didn't really care about storing the recordings as I was writing them down in paper. 

 

The wand is a little awkward to use but functional. The meter simply screws on with a plastic screw. The awkward part is just from trying to manipulate it into the correct position in the tank as it has a little hinge where the meter connects and getting it facing directly up at the lights can be difficult in some harder to reach areas of a tank.

 

I ended up keeping it for the entire 30 days. It was nice to have the rental for such a long time as I adjusted my settings and changed my lighting slowly over the month. 

 

The return was uneventful, they use Fedex. Again I returned on a Friday, On Tuesday I emailed them to ask them the status of the refund. I only waited 6 minutes for a reply letting me know it had just been approved and the refund would be processed that day but may show up as 'pending' on the credit card.

 

Obviously transferring funds between banks takes some time but I did receive confirmation of a refund that same day and the money posted a few days later with the original refund date still listed as that Tuesday.

 

I found this company to be very responsive and I will use them again in the future for any rentals. I was able to put the rental on a credit card, use it the full 30 days and have the refund before my credit card bill was due since they have such a fast turn around.

 

I also found them to be a lot cheaper with a longer rental time than other companies.

 

 

I forgot to take pictures so you get this bad one.

 

PAR rental.png

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49 minutes ago, SaltyBuddha said:

Interesting. Large deposit but I can understand why.

 

How did your PAR values compare with the light specifications?

My light is a custom nano-box + t5 so I didn't have anything to go on for that but thats a good question.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I also used them. Thanks to Tamberav. Never heard to nextlight.Great customer service. The meter was a nice tool for me ,I have  diy lighting and had no idea of the amount of light my tank was getting. After using the meter I upgraded all of the drivers for greater par amount.

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