In case any one is interested in volunteering, there will be a new set of dates for surveys next spring. One just has to be available for the high tide survey times. day or night. and walk a stretch of beach for that time making a count. Our former President, Mary, used to do this one every year.
we could do the same. as a club or individual volunteers.
Ugly horse shoe crabs are important to our bay and bird flyways. and to our medical research.
Apartment? You think I would put one of those things in an apartment! lol Can you imagine the thread where I would ask for help moving my 500g tank out of my apartment!
The big tank and big home are part of the life goal. I will be one happy man when I feel comfertable enough in a nice size home to set up a tank for a shark. I won’t bring an animal home unless I am sure I can take care of it for many years.
Once the club starts to rent out this new par meter I will be very interested to compare the readings I get with other people and hope we can publish them on the new site. I am using a VERY old, dirty coralife clip on MH fixture with a brand new phenoix light bulb(~1month old). I have been thinking about replacing the fixture for a while now, but never really knew if it would be worth the investment. I’m pretty sure the reflector, which has some rust spots on it even, is not ideal and I know I am losing some PAR because of it. Hoping someone else with a better reflector with be able to share PAR values with me, so we can compare. Then I can figure out if it would be worth it for me to purchase a new fixture.
not an exact comparison, but heres a little bit about reflectors.
in a test on t5ho bulbs, 54 watt to be exact. par on 3 bulbs with SLR reflectors registered at 400 high point and averaged 300. 4 bulbs with a SINGLE reflector register 350 high point and averaged around 250.
also the difference between a coralife clip on MH and a lumenarc MH is blinding. in lighting, a good reflector is the best/cheapest way to get better output.
Hmmm?/ perhaps i should lower my DIY dual 150w HQI and T5 strip light a bit. the bulbs currently sit about 10 inches off the water and there is 10 inches of free water in the frag tank.
[quote=“addicted2reefin, post:7, topic:606”]
also the difference between a coralife clip on MH and a lumenarc MH is blinding. in lighting, a good reflector is the best/cheapest way to get better output. [/quote]
I need a quantifyable figure to justify the expense. If the par were to increase by 5% and help the corals grow 5% faster the cost wouldn’t be justifyable at this point.
Oh yes it is. All bulbs put out “X” par in a three dimensional pattern depending on their design and watts. But the reflector determines how much of that quantatative light energy gets directed down , into the tank.
Light that bounces off a reflector of inferior geometry and hits back into the bulb, is no help to the tank. it is lost. so an efficient reflector is truly the key to putting light energy from any bulb, into the tank and onto the corals.
The best combination of efficient light sources and reflectors is what we strive for to keep our tanks happy, and not cost too much energy to run.