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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Reef Lighting Comparison Resource


thams

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Hi all, I'm getting back into reef-keeping and I've been researching lighting over the past couple of months.  Man, I'm overwhelmed to say the least.  For many of the lights I'm considering (Aqua Knight, Lominie, etc) I've been able to find scattered PAR and spectrum discussions, but no direct comparisons of different fixtures.  Does anyone know of anything along these lines that you've stumbled upon?

 

Honestly, I'm getting really interested in lighting and I'm tempted to start a repository of standardized testing for PAR and spectrum that everyone could use to directly compare lights before buying.  I think it would cut down on a lot of the antidotal claims of this light is better than that light that I see when comparing one versus another.  Thoughts?

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If you notice, the base formula is something like 2:1 blue to white.  The rest is more or less accent or decoration.  The amount of watts and the lenses are the only two other factors that vary.  You can think of lenses, just to keep it simple, as dictating the ideal mounting height.  Watts correspond with the amount of power, of course.

 

(A PAR meter costs more than the lights you're looking at BTW...that's the main reason there are no PAR measurements of them out there.)

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On 9/20/2020 at 2:45 PM, mcarroll said:

If you notice, the base formula is something like 2:1 blue to white.  The rest is more or less accent or decoration.  The amount of watts and the lenses are the only two other factors that vary.  You can think of lenses, just to keep it simple, as dictating the ideal mounting height.  Watts correspond with the amount of power, of course.

 

(A PAR meter costs more than the lights you're looking at BTW...that's the main reason there are no PAR measurements of them out there.)

Yeah, I realize it might be a little ridiculous to drop $500 on a good PAR meter to test a $70 light.  BUT!  Wouldn't it be cool to have a central repository somewhere online of all different lights with PAR readings and measurements and all that good stuff?  

 

There's a lot of information scattered about the lighting, but sometimes it's difficult to discern how accurate the measurements are.  I dunno, I think I'm way too bored in isolation and need a project to tackle or something.  

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