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I have a solution. Send all your bulbs, spectral analysis equipment, PAR meters, etc...to me and I will continue the testing. I can dedicate 3 hours a day to testing.

BTW, what kind of spectral analysis equipment would one need to do the work you do? I have been looking for a good PAR meter at least, but something that would allow me to do spectral graphs would be great...maybe UWM or Madison would already have something like this...or I could talk a professor into getting it...
 
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=7216083#post7216083

As you can see, I have been thinking about getting my hands on some Spectrum Analysis equipment. I was at an IEEE meeting today, and talked with some professors about UWMilwaukee getting some spectral analysis equipment, and they said it was something that Dr. Law was looking into. One prof suggested the Thor Labs Spectral Analyzer...a small hockey puck with a USB connection. $2000. Is this too cheap to be accurate? Or does software compensate?

I might not be buying this stuff for myself just yet, but I might be able to work with having the University buy it, and then I can use it there...

Any suggestions on Equipment Sanjay? Also, will I still need a seperate PAR meter, or will a spectral analyzer be able to do that as well?
 
I do not know about the Spectral Analyzer you mention. Do you have a link for it. ?

You can also look into the one made by Ocean Optics. It has a nice fiber optic probe and plugs into the USB port.

Usually, once you get the spectrum, the software should be able to compute everything about the light source - PPFD, LUX, CCt, etc. If not, I can give you the equations and you can compute it yourself from the spectral plot.

sanjay.
 
http://www.oceanoptics.com/Products/usb650.asp
Is this the ocean optics unit you talk of? You got me beat...$999 only...

I see a QE65000, HR4000, HR2000+, USB4000, or would the USB 650 be accurate enough. I am wondering, what is the extra money buying me really? Is is accuracy...in which case...how impartant can that be considering what we are doing...??


Ill look for that Thor Instruments Model. I have been looking for it myself since I heard of it.
 
I had not seen the one you mention in this link. But it will be fine for what we want to do. 2nm interval is fine. That is what I use with the Licor that I have.

These are not as easy to use as the LICOR that I have, since you have to do some caliberation/reference samples. I know Dana Riddle has used some of the ocean optics intruments.

Its a great price.

sanjay.
 
Yeah, under $1000 isnt bad at all...

2nm intervals looks accurate enough for what we are doin here, but does the precision look ok?

Which Licor do you use? Maybe that would be a good way to compare stats so I have a 'benchmark' to look at.

When I look at the 'extras' at the bottom, I take it that I would also need the $425 meter to make it work?

Sorry, I am a little lost in this area. My real focus in EE is signals and systems, VLSI, digital, etc. Light science isnt too complicated, but the specs that some of these meters use dont exactly jump out at me as far as importance.
 
Thanks for the work Sanjay! This question is for anyone out there other than Sanjay. He is busy :)

I just want to make sure I'm looking at things correctly. I am currently running a Magnetic 400W ballast and do not plan on changing this any time soon. I purchased an XM 15K bulb when they came out, not knowing the par value.

I love the color that I'm getting. I should be able to compare the color to other bulbs using the spectral analysis correct? The par does suck on the XM, but I don't see anything 14/15K bulbs that have anything better using my ballast. This would explain why I have no major growth out of my SPS corals. I have NO room for any additional lighting, so I'm stuck with the one bulb.

I guess I'm looking for opinions more than data. I can read the data, but i'm not sure how to interpret this into how it's going to look. It looks like my best option is to go with an XM 10K, which runs closer to a 12K and just have a whiter tank. 20K pars are not much better and I do not like the purple look.
 
gath2,
I tried the Helio 20K and XM 15K and wasn't happy with the par or coral growth I was getting. Then I tried XM 10K and was happy but wanted to try the EVC's. They are a lot bluer then the XM's and not as intense even though they have a higher par..? Give the EVC 10K a try, I think you'll be happy with the color.
 
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The EVC 10000K's are more blue than the XM 10000K's? Really? I was expecting them to be more yellow with a CCT of 8300 - 8400K compared to XM's 11000 - 12000K. What ballast / reflector are you using? Has anyone else found this to be true?
 
XMs are amont the pee-yellowest 10,000Ks out there, along with the Aqualine, Coralife, and a few others. The odd thing is that the EVC has even less blue, and more yellow than the XM (or even the XDE if you are comparing DE bulbs). So I highly doubt that he EVC is bluer than the XM from simply looking at the spectral graph. Perhaps you are thinking of the EVC 14,000K Money Pit?

The CoralVue or Happy Reefing 10,000Ks are more blue, less yellow 10,000Ks though.
 
As I figured opinions are all over the place. I agreed with armygreen and would think the XM's would be more blue based on the graphs and CCT. Sanjay doesn't have a 400w SE happy reefing bulb on the site, they may not even make them. I guess I should have specified SE bulbs.

The CoaralVue 400W 10K SE bulb only has a PPFD of 88 on the site. It still looks like the I'm not going to get a much better PAR value than the XM 15K, unless I switch to a 10K. The only other option would be to upgrade my ballast.
 
CCT is only one aspect of color. The true color of a light source is derived from CCT, CRI and spectral distribution. I've seen the difference with my own eyes and EVC's appear bluer.
 
there are tons of people doing that. lots of threads on here regarding T5 lighting. One tank to check out is lwan's tank. I think that is his name.
 
Thank you ! I am interested In the T5's mainly due to your previous posts Hahnmeister. I have been a die hard HQI guy since they came out but the deeper penetration of a T5 is interesting to me. I am building a new 96 X 30 X 24 and was going to increase the DSB to about 4-5 and lower the lights to compensate but maybe T5's over the area that will have deeper rock formations is the ticket.... what do you guys think ?
 
Is that tank 30 high or 24? You would need to run 54 watt T5's side by side to cover that monster. Assumming it is 30 tall and 24 deep you would need to run a 16 Ice Cap T5 system to cover that baby. that will cost you about 1200 watts and some serious coin to set up. Depending on what you want to raise you might get away with 12 lamps (2 rows of 6).
 
The tank will be 30" deep.. sorry. Actually what I was thinking was to put 2 X 250 HQI's over the higher part of the reef with 1T5 running along side of them (for color matching) and then run 6 T5's over the deep part of the reef. I am going to have a sand bar in between two distinct sections of reef and it will be a 3 sided walk around tank with the overflow on one short side.On the opposite short side there will be a very deep reef ( about 6-12 inches off the sand bottom... ) and that is where I need the deep penetration.
 
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