250w Radium SE PAR graphs

[aandfsoccr04]

Hey I was curious about the radiums PAR in my tank at different levels so I took some readings tonight. I have the bluewave 3 magnetic HQI ballasts that properly drives the radiums and use the lumenmax elite reflectors in my canopy. The bulbs are 14.5 inches off the water surface. The tank is a 120 gallon tank 4 feet long x 2 feet deep x 2 feet tall.

The PAR meter that I used was the Apogee MQ-200 PAR Meter, which can be seen here:
http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/apogee-mq-200-par-meter

The first picture shows the arrangements of the lights in my tank. I also noticed a significant change in the color of the bulbs. The 1 year old bulbs were fairly yellowish whereas the brand new bulbs were a really nice crisp white with a tiny bit of blue hue which I prefer greatly to the 1 year old bulbs.

The next picture shows my tank with 1 year old bulbs and the PAR readings:

This picture is the brand new bulbs with PAR readings:

Lastly, the bulbs side by side, the old ones on the right and new ones on the left:

 

[rsg4]

Are all four of those bulbs suppose to be the same?

 

[PaulErik]

The 1 year lamps in the picture are Aqua Connect 14,000K made by Narva-Neuco in Germany. Changing over to Radium 20,000K will be a significant change in color when using an ANSI M80 magnetic ballast.

 

[alton]

See if you can borrow an electronic ballast and try taking the PAR levels as a side by side comparison with the mag ballast?

 

[aandfsoccr04]

Are you guys sure that the bulbs are not the same? I could have sworn that they are both radiums. I have so many bulbs laying around sometimes I get confused though. I could be wrong.

 

[karsseboom]

Those are pretty low readings from radiums on that ballast. I posted my par readings and things were a lot different.

 

[Jeremy B.]

As Paul mentioned above, the lamps on the right are definitely 14k Aquaconnects, while the two on the left are Radiums.

 

[aandfsoccr04]

yeah thank you for that correction. I just noticed that when I got home and read the label on the bulb. What's the quality difference between the two bulbs?

 

[ashish]

Those numbers are scary....We can't tell but your PAR more than doubled. I need to buy a PAR meter asap I think it's a very wise piece of equipment when you have Acros

 

[Ron Reefman]

I'll steal ashish's thunder. He posted this link in a different thread:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/jb/

Just look at the different PAR values based on the different bulbs! And different ballasts made a smaller difference, but still significant. I never knew MH bulbs could have such wide ranging PAR values! These are as crazy wide in PAR as leds can be.

 

[Michigan Mike]

Looks as though the 14k Aquaconnect bulbs lost their blue thunder over a year or so.

Like your purple/yellow tip torch.