PAR meter and SPS succes

[29reef]

I am happy with mine. It's a serious tool. The first time you map your tank you are probably in for some surprises. For MH and LED fixtures, the huge impact of reflector design becomes apparent in terms of spread and intensity. T5s not so much.

And you'll be surprised how quickly light drops off as one lowers the probe in the tank.

The other major benefit is the objective measurement of available light. No more "tons of light" or "looks bright to me". Specific, objective values.

Want to find out whether the glass covers on your MH reflectors reduce par? You can. Want to understand how much less light is getting through because of the dried splashes on your glass covers? You can. Want to find out the impact of screening over part of the tank? Not a problem.

Sure, one can alter the amount of par a coral receives by raising or lowering it in one's tank, but is the par range even close to decent, let alone optimal? With a par meter you can be sure.

I'm in agreement 100%.

However, I don't have any plans to change my lights out for other lights based on my results and I don't wish to move my rocks around to accommodate my corals needs, so I'm stuck with what I have. I guess I'm okay with a bit of trial and error with placing corals. I guess I've been doing it for so long now that I'm used to it. I really don't think you can hurt corals by underlighting them and there's only so much prime space in a tank.