Par meter

B

bwig333

Premium Member
OK guys, just wondering where to get a cheap but decent par meter? I have a DIY LED fixture and am wanting to keep sps. I want to know if I am getting enough light in certain areas of the tank. I have about 7 small frags right now and they are not looking good. I have checked all parameters except magnesium(don't have test kit) and they are all within a normal range and stay pretty consistent. Ca has been about 420ppm, phosphates have been undetectable with my cheap API test kit. Nitrates have been higher in the past but seem to be about 10ppm right now(still want to lower them). I actually have 3 frags that still look good, and are growing but no PE. The other 4 started to turn white at bottom of frag and it has worked its way up the frag where only the top 1/4 inch of frag has anything left on it. They have been in my tank since May 1st. Don't know if this is STN or not, but it seems to have started with a green birdsnest and now it is happening to other random sps frags(they are not located within any proximity to the birdsnest). I am trying to problem solve now so any ideas would be appreciated. Will lighting cause this? Will a par meter even be worth trying due to the LEDs? Any ideas why I am having issues with certain frags and not others? BTW my acan, duncan, zoas, mushroom, and kenyas are thriving. Thanks in advance guys
 
The symptoms you describe could be cause by a pest. Have you inspected any of the corals having problems for tiny bugs or eggs? Do you have any fish that might be irritating them such as angels, clown goby, or butterfly?
 
apogee quantum PAR is the best. go cheap, you get what you pay for. to correct for LED measurement, use a 1.2 correction factor. LED's can be pretty intense. I have one, where the heck is Aubrey?
 
also, could you describe your LED setup? I had a little frag o' birdnest running under 16 1w LED wavepoint clip on...no go! It started to get skinny looking and having death, my shrimp started snacking on the dying parts. I quickly moved it under 2x24w T5HO, it came back no problemo. I have good flow and the PAR on that light is around 250. I am running a light now that has 60 3w LED, dimmable, about 150w total maybe, I run it around 60 percent and every thing is doing awesome.

The hanna checker is a pretty good phosphate checker, I have the salifert magnesium, but use Red Sea Coral pro and it seems to have enough. I does every once in a while to keep it around 1500.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. Vrba; I have checked and do not see anything, but I don't want to say I am a pro at detecting things. I haven't seen anything messing with the corals. My fish include 2 clowns, a yellow tang and 2 damsels. Tom Aubrey is b/w frisco and denton right off of 380. My set up is a diy steves led set up. I have a 90g bowfront with 30g sump. My flow could probably be better. I have 2 koralia 2's plus return from sump as flow. I want to save up for a few mp40's but just got married and will have to justify the cost with the wife. The lights have 21 3w royal blues and 21 neutral whites 3w. They sit about 13in above the tank. I am in the process of programming the lights on my apex, just waiting on the apex dimming cable so I can connect it to the unit. If you guys have any suggestions on the lights or anything else with my setup I will be more than happy to take suggestions. The sad thing is I have been running a reef tank for over 5 yrs and still feel like I know absolutely nothing especially with sps. Thanks again guys
 
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