Lighting an Aquarium with PAR instead of Watts

[Hoppy]

Originally Posted by papaj10789

I would be really interested in seeing the figures on common LED fixtures or even single LED stars put into more common terms than the link provided for the led lighting compedium. The charts Hoppy has created for the different lights and brands is easily understood.

OK, I just spent most of the day making a chart as you requested. It is best used just to help filter out the LED lights that won't work for you. Once you do that you can do more research on those that look like they might work. See the first post for the chart.

[kubalik]

Hey Hoppy !
Would you happen to know how wide one of those finex ray 2 light fixtures would cover at 25" above the substrate ? For 18" wide tank I would need two of those to stay in medium-high light ?
Thx.

Btw , great job man , thanks a lot.

[sayurasem]

Originally Posted by kubalik

Hey Hoppy !
Would you happen to know how wide one of those finex ray 2 light fixtures would cover at 25" above the substrate ? For 18" wide tank I would need two of those to stay in medium-high light ?
Thx.

Btw , great job man , thanks a lot.

wide as in fixture wise... or the angle of light? These fixtures are pretty skinny.
These fixtures are only 2 3/4" wide. I do remember they use a 120 degrees lense over the leds.

[kubalik]

Originally Posted by sayurasem

wide as in fixture wise... or the angle of light? These fixtures are pretty skinny.
These fixtures are only 2 3/4" wide. I do remember they use a 120 degrees lense over the leds.

Yeah I meant the angle of light , at 120 degrees I should be fine with one

[Hoppy]

Some of the LED light vendors put graphic charts showing the light spread on their websites, but I don't recall that Finnex does that.

[teonguyen]

Hi Hobby! Just a quick question and hope you can help me clarify on this. According to the chart for T5HO, At 21'' above the substrate the Catalina 4 bulbs give 80 micromols ; the Catalina 3 bulbs gives approx 62 micromols. Does this mean turn all bulbs on will give that certain PAR value or we multiply the PAR by number of bulbs ? Thank you

[Hoppy]

Originally Posted by teonguyen

Hi Hobby! Just a quick question and hope you can help me clarify on this. According to the chart for T5HO, At 21'' above the substrate the Catalina 4 bulbs give 80 micromols ; the Catalina 3 bulbs gives approx 62 micromols. Does this mean turn all bulbs on will give that certain PAR value or we multiply the PAR by number of bulbs ? Thank you

The PAR numbers in those charts are for the actual light fixtures, with a full complement of bulbs. The exceptions are the ATI 4 bulb fixture, which had only 3 bulbs in it, and the calculated PAR shown for one bulb for Tek and Catalina lights. That last one for the Tek lights is usable by multiplying the number of bulbs by the PAR per bulb. But, Catalina uses different shaped reflectors in various light fixtures, so the number is only good for those with similar reflectors (the one bulb Catalina lights appear to use the most different reflector shape.)

[teonguyen]

Originally Posted by Hoppy

The PAR numbers in those charts are for the actual light fixtures, with a full complement of bulbs. The exceptions are the ATI 4 bulb fixture, which had only 3 bulbs in it, and the calculated PAR shown for one bulb for Tek and Catalina lights. That last one for the Tek lights is usable by multiplying the number of bulbs by the PAR per bulb. But, Catalina uses different shaped reflectors in various light fixtures, so the number is only good for those with similar reflectors (the one bulb Catalina lights appear to use the most different reflector shape.)

This research is awesome and I think it s much more details than the previous charts. Thanks for your clarification.. and please keep us posted with your new studies.....

[LetsTalkTanks]

You said in your data for t8's that you were recording par readings on t8's with basic white reflectors. Aqua one has two 36" fixtures "flouro grow" and "al30d" (specifically speaking of the one I want). With "polished aluminum" reflectors which looks like it is one reflector spread out for two tubes. What would you recon The par would be with this in consideration as well as the new data collected from Thr diamond plated t8's.

[Hoppy]

I updated the chart for T8 lights with the latest data that sowNreap posted. That should let you make a good guess about what you would get with that Aqua one light.

[Gafi]

nevermind, answer was seen in earlier posts

[Gafi]

Acturally....I do have a questions now....if you put 2 fixtures that each give say 60 PAR....does that mnean you have 120 PAR in the water.....or does that mean you just have 2 60 PAR fixtures directing light into the tank? Looking for the best way to get high light in my 90 Gal Planted Tank

[Hoppy]

PAR isn't something that you put into the tank. It is the intensity of the light at various points in the tank. The light can come from room light and/or one, two, three, etc. lights sitting on top of, or hanging above the tank. When you have two lights close together, their light overlaps a lot, so the intensity can double right under the bulbs. But, if the two lights are widely spaced, say 8 inches apart, the overlap is mostly of the lower intensity area away from directly under the bulb, so the intensity in the middle of the tank is more likely to be about the same as when only one light is over that spot.

A 90 gallon tank is about 18 inches front to back, so it is helpful to have two lights, widely separated, to get more uniform light intensity over the whole substrate. If you put two light close together you will get possibly double the intensity right under the lights, but near the front and back of the tank the intensity will likely be much lower.

If you are sure you want high light, you can use a Catalina Aquarium 4 bulb T5HO, with the bulbs in two groups of 2 bulbs, with the groups about 8-10 inches apart, in an extra wide housing. That will be a custom light, but they have made some like that for other people.

[Gafi]

what are you thoughts on this lighting fixture Hoppy http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/sl...+4x54W%29.html

PS the issue with the Catalina ones, are I am not sure they ship to Canada and if they do, im sure it would be ridiculous

[Hoppy]

It would be worth a phone call to Catalina to find out what it costs to ship there. They have great customer service. The Tek light would really be a lot of light for a planted tank. Using two bulbs only would probably make it work, but with 4 bulbs you would need to hang it high above the tank.