I made a trip to Marcus (GMFett) and Dallis' house yesterday and they hooked me up with some amazing frags, including a replacement for the ill-fated efflo. Thanks a ton guys, I owe you big time! I took my PAR meter to take some readings of their tank, which runs on 400W 10K and 20K bulbs under Lumenarc reflectors along with VHO and T5 supplementation. The results were very interesting. Their max numbers at the water surface were a little higher than what I'm getting with the Powermodule, but I get better light penetration to the substrate. Of course this is not an 'apples to apples' comparison since their lights hang much higher above the water than mine. What was really interesting was how drastic a reduction in PAR was seen when measuring beneath the reflector and just inches away. It was a huge drop-off. We also measured the PAR beneath the VHO's and T5's, and the VHO's are basically worthless and only serve to take up space. Hanging about 1 foot above the water the PAR of VHO's was 50 just beneath the water surface, while the T5's were ~150 if I remember correctly. Now it'll be a race of who will post pictures first, me of my new frags or Marcus and Dallis of their PAR map. Game on, guys
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RoBolton - It seems I didn't do quite enough research before getting my PAR meter. Yours enables you to calibrate the sensor, while I have to send mine back to the manufacturer every 2 years for a recal. Darn, one-upped again.