T5 Bulb PAR Comparison

[banditpowdercoat]

OK, excuse my ignorance, what is PAR and how do I read/understand the info posted?

I presently have 2 Giesemann Midday and 2 Pure Actinics on my tank, As per Wendell's recommendation. I like them, but I know no different yet

[Myka]

albert dao: Thanks for the info. I will add it right away (and contact them about placing an order! ). Do you know what other T5 bulbs those retailers carry???

Originally Posted by banditpowdercoat

OK, excuse my ignorance, what is PAR and how do I read/understand the info posted?

I presently have 2 Giesemann Midday and 2 Pure Actinics on my tank, As per Wendell's recommendation. I like them, but I know no different yet

PAR = Photosynthetically active radiation, which basically means it's a rating of the output of light that is photosynthetically usable. Generally speaking, the higher the better for reef tanks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosy...tive_radiation

I have learned to become lesser of a fan of the Giesemann bulbs. There are bulbs out there that produce equal or more PAR and don't have the dark ends like the Giesemann bulbs do. That's really my only complaint though. There are still decent lamps.

[zulu_principle]

Hi

We have the UVL/URI in 75/25 the balance are coming next week.



Wendell

[Myka]

Originally Posted by zulu_principle

Hi

We have the UVL/URI in 75/25 the balance are coming next week.



Wendell

Thanks! I will add it, I didn't know the 75/25 existed! Now we need PAR ratings for it. Are you going to be carrying the rest of the UVL fleet?

[midgetwaiter]

I assume this is the info from http://tfivetesting.googlepages.com/ ? As such it would be a good idea to specify that the data is from 54w bulbs running in a TEK light.

The PAR measurement for a 75.25 is 254

Aquarium Illusions in Edmonton carries Giesman and UVL

[Myka]

Originally Posted by midgetwaiter

I assume this is the info from http://tfivetesting.googlepages.com/ ? As such it would be a good idea to specify that the data is from 54w bulbs running in a TEK light.

The PAR measurement for a 75.25 is 254

Aquarium Illusions in Edmonton carries Giesman and UVL

No, I got the info from hunting through TheGrimReefer's posts on Reef Central. Now if I woulda known he had a website with it all neatly laid out I would have just bookmarked it instead of making this thread!!

In my case, I don't care what size the bulbs are or what fixture they're in. I'm looking at numbers relative to eachother. As long as they're all tested in the same unit, all should be relative.

Thanks for the link!!!

[Myka]

Personally, if I was running a 250w over 30g I wouldn't be overly concerned about the PAR of my actinics because your PAR should be fairly high already - depending hugely on what brand and type of ballast you're running though! So I would probably go with a pure actinic and use the UVL Super Actinic, or possibly the KZ Fiji Purple (not pure actinic) depending what color preference you like. Both will make the colors of your corals pop, probably the KZ a bit more so. If you want to pull the light bluer than that I would suggest the ATI Blue Plus. It's all personal preference when choosing color though.

Side note...if you're wanting an SPS dominated tank, I would suggest not having softies in the tank. Softies release toxins as a way of chemical warfare, and SPS are particularly sensitive to it. You can run a bunch of carbon to absorb the toxins, but large amounts of carbon seem to decrease polyp extension in SPS. So it's kind of a catch 22.