Jump to content

Lux meter


gmiller

Recommended Posts

I have seen some interest in the club having a Lux meter. Foster &Smith has one on sale now for next to $85.00. If we can get 17 or 18 people to pitch in $5.00 each we can have it. I am about to order from Foster&Smith so I will order it when I have enough responses and $5 bills. I will keep a list in the order of response and this will be the order of use. When the meter arrives I will use it to map the light levels in my tank and promptly mail it to the next person on the list. We all need to promise to use the meter promptly and mail it to the next on the list. When everyone has used the meter it will be sent to the president of PNWMAS, which I believe is Chief for safe keeping and can be requisitioned from him in the future. I for one am tired of guessing the light levels in my tank for the placement of coral and this hobby is a bit expensive to be guessing. I am relatively new to the hobby so can use all the help I can get so I dont croak any livestock. Just a thought so let me know what you think and maybe we can have this meter at our disposal relatively painlessly. Gary

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Gary, you may already know this: there is a difference between "LUX meter" and "Quantum meter", the main one being the spectrum of light measured. The Quantum meter reads only in the PAR spectrum.(also has a probe that can be submerged to measure at the level of the coral under water.) Ryan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

lux meter

 

The meter I'm looking at has a underwater probe and measures intensity wherever you put it in the tank. I'm interested in mapping my tank so I'll know where to put corals to meet their light requirement. The color of light is determined by the kelvin rating of the bulb,or am I all wet? I have read so much conflicting information on lighting I'm not sure what to believe. Thanks for your input.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gary the difference is we dont really care what the total light from the source is, we only care about what the PAR light is (photosynthetic available radiation) the PAR light is the only light the corals are going to use. If you measure the total light, it could be very different from the PAR light, thus you could THINK the light was good in a location, in reality it could be very low in the light available for the corals to use to grow.

 

hope that clarifys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The physics lab at my school (Reed College) owns a quantum (PAR) meter. The lab technician I talked to didn't know if it had a waterproof sensor or not; he said he'd check. If it does, I could probably get him to loan it to me for a week or so--certainly not as nice as the club owning one, but a couple of us could collect data. And a $0 cost is nice :)

 

I'll keep y'all updated.

 

-Sol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...