Hi everyone! I'm new here to the planted tank forum and to planted tanks in general. I've kept reef tanks for almost 20 years now, but have never tried a freshwater planted tank before. When it comes to lighting a reef, I bounce between T5HO and LED depending on what corals I'm trying to keep and overall lighting application with having had good success with both types of lighting. Mainly due to understanding PAR and how it affects photosynthetic energy production by the zooxanthellae in coral tissue.
When it comes to lighting requirements for a planted tank, I've run across the designations of low, medium, and high lighting as well as high and low tech tanks in regards to setup, lighting intensity, use of CO2, use of fertilization of the water column, etc. At the moment, I'm trying to get a handle on just what exactly is high light versus low light versus medium light. I've found several references to the now outdated method of watts per gallon, as well as lots of posts referencing PAR and PAR intensity in regard to high, med, low light. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is what PAR values equate to these vague general terms of high, med, and low light. Right now I have a 20 gallon high utilizing a CO2 injection system, Flourish complete liquid fertilizer, Flourite substrate, and a Current USA Freshwater LED+ fixture. I'm trying to decide if I like this fixture and where I fall in lighting intensity i.e. high, med or low with it. Can someone give me an idea as to PAR values or ranges that coorespond to "high", "med", and "low" light?