PAR meter suggestions

[LEDhead]

Just ordered a HLG 600h Rspec and I know my LUX meter doesn’t really work correctly with LEDs so I’m in the market for a decent PAR meter. Nothing to crazy, this will not be used for a commercial grow, just using in a small tent. Not many options for PAR meters on the market so just seeing what everyone is either using or would suggest purchasing.

 

[Aqua Man]

Lux meter is fine for your light... It doesn't work with blurples because of spectrum. I'm not sure where ya heard it doesn't work for led?

 

[redshift75]

From my research and this is just my opinion after looking into it. it doesnt seem worth it if you need it small scale as you would have to invest a good amount of $ that cash could easily offset buying more lights for better coverage than the gains of finding the perfect spot. In my case i have access to one at a local grow shop and i could ask them to spec my light and find it for height or w.e. From other things i read it seemed that if you had the right lux meter or what have you, You could relatively find the same info for coverage minus the effect of the spectrum and blend. So my conclusion was the money was better spent else where. To get the meter id want mq100 or mq500 would be like 1/3-2/3rds what i just spent to upgrade to quantum boards. But then again it looks like you do enough grows you would benefit from using one and the data time after time youd garner from using the equipment. Im a fanboy to the apogee. Ive seen the hydro farm and a few others side by side and there are some good ones. But ive seen the apogee really get some use and remain nice/durable/accurate.

Guy at the grow shop basically told me of this hack

and when compared to the apogee it was pretty spot on within 1% or less using a cheap lux meter but doesnt work with the blurple thing(largely spectrum specific if memory serves). Since then i havent really looked into the meters. Instead put the investment for the potential to go Ebb and Flow in the future. im sure someone with more info could come along. But i had this debate in my equipment line up not long ago :)

 

[LEDhead]

Here’s what I got. Looking up about using it with LEDs says doesn’t really work as well. I’m just trying to adjust my potentiometer so I don’t fry my girls in the shorty tent I got. Not much room at the moment so I’ll have to wait to add the extension but in the mean time I’m gonna scrog the hell out of these girls!

 

[Aqua Man]

Here’s what I got. Looking up about using it with LEDs says doesn’t really work as well. I’m just trying to adjust my potentiometer so I don’t fry my girls in the shorty tent I got. Not much room at the moment so I’ll have to wait to add the extension but in the mean time I’m gonna scrog the hell out of these girls!

Any chance you can show me where? That's completely new to me. I know for blurples but full spectrum it should absolutely be fine.

I have the same light you do and I use a lux app all the time surprisingly it pretty dam close.

 

[jaguarlax]

Here’s what I got. Looking up about using it with LEDs says doesn’t really work as well. I’m just trying to adjust my potentiometer so I don’t fry my girls in the shorty tent I got. Not much room at the moment so I’ll have to wait to add the extension but in the mean time I’m gonna scrog the hell out of these girls!

random question @LEDhead are those kessils in your posts from 2011????

 

[LEDhead]

Any chance you can show me where? That's completely new to me. I know for blurples but full spectrum it should absolutely be fine.

I have the same light you do and I use a lux app all the time surprisingly it pretty dam close.

Some reviews and other forums and this from LumiGrow site....
Similarly, light meters that measure in “lux” tell us very little about a lamp’s plant-growing power. The light sensors in lux meters have their own spectral response curves which may over- or under-measure light at various colors. This is why lux meters usually have different settings for “sunlight,” “fluorescent” and “incandescent” lamps. Again, because lux meters are meant for measuring the amount of light usable by humans, they don’t tell us anything about how plants will respond. Plant biologists define light in the 400nm to 700nm spectral region as “photosynthetically available radiation,” or PAR. The unit for measuring PAR, micro-mols per second (μmol/s), indicates how many photons in this spectral range fall on the plant each second

 

[LEDhead]

random question @LEDhead are those kessils in your posts from 2011????

Probably older but they weren’t any good thank god I won them in a contest and didn’t pay the $300+ for each one and that carrier LOL!!

 

[Aqua Man]

Some reviews and other forums and this from LumiGrow site....
Similarly, light meters that measure in “lux” tell us very little about a lamp’s plant-growing power. The light sensors in lux meters have their own spectral response curves which may over- or under-measure light at various colors. This is why lux meters usually have different settings for “sunlight,” “fluorescent” and “incandescent” lamps. Again, because lux meters are meant for measuring the amount of light usable by humans, they don’t tell us anything about how plants will respond. Plant biologists define light in the 400nm to 700nm spectral region as “photosynthetically available radiation,” or PAR. The unit for measuring PAR, micro-mols per second (μmol/s), indicates how many photons in this spectral range fall on the plant each second

Yes but we don't need to know all that, the manufacturer provides it. All we need to know is the intensity and while it may not be accurate enough for a lab setting it's more than accurate enough for the home grower

 

[jaguarlax]

Probably older but they weren’t any good thank god I won them in a contest and didn’t pay the $300+ for each one and that carrier LOL!!

If its the model I am thinking of, (which that color is pretty unique) you would need alot more spectrum than that. I use that light to grow one particular strand of algae in saltwater... whoever told you it was good for cannabis was not very smart, but they make different stuff that is SICK and I am thinking of doing some experiments.

 

[LEDhead]

Yeah this was my first grow and i

If its the model I am thinking of, (which that color is pretty unique) you would need alot more spectrum than that. I use that light to grow one particular strand of algae in saltwater... whoever told you it was good for cannabis was not very smart, but they make different stuff that is SICK and I am thinking of doing some experiments.View attachment 972932

was not smart enough to do hydro so I messed them up bad but yeah I won these and 4 H350 magenta and the holder but it wasn’t good either. Early stages in the LED world

 

[LEDhead]

If its the model I am thinking of, (which that color is pretty unique) you would need alot more spectrum than that. I use that light to grow one particular strand of algae in saltwater... whoever told you it was good for cannabis was not very smart, but they make different stuff that is SICK and I am thinking of doing some experiments.View attachment 972932

Here’s one I did with the 350’s...

 

[jaguarlax]

Yea thats a refugium light. We use them underneath our tanks to grow microalgae... you might see people use them in algae scrubbers.... Kessil makes some really nice stuff, and they developed an app to change spectrums with your phone. They are not cheap, but one day I will put together a dope little kessil box

 

[Aqua Man]

Yea thats a refugium light. We use them underneath our tanks to grow microalgae... you might see people use them in algae scrubbers.... Kessil makes some really nice stuff, and they developed an app to change spectrums with your phone. They are not cheap, but one day I will put together a dope little kessil box

I build an in the tank algae scrubber.. a HOB algae scrubber and a waterfall algae scrubber over the years my nitrates were never higher than 5ppm on this tanks. Not good for planted tanks lol only my discus breeding tanks since they are so sensitive

 

[LEDhead]

I’ve since sold those years ago and kinda just stopped for a while but reviews and Aqua Man’s suggestion on the HLG 600 was helpful, thank you for that. Gotta grab a soldering gun today and some shrink wrap.

 

[jaguarlax]

I build an in the tank algae scrubber.. a HOB algae scrubber and a waterfall algae scrubber over the years my nitrates were never higher than 5ppm on this tanks. Not good for planted tanks lol only my discus breeding tanks since they are so sensitive

I built one for a seahorse tank once because they are super picky too... crazy how well they work. I dont run ANY chemical filtration in any of my tanks. Just chaetomorpha in a sump with one kessil over it, some carbon, and some other tweaks that noone cares about. I have crystal clear water at all times.

 

[Aqua Man]

I built one for a seahorse tank once because they are super picky too... crazy how well they work. I dont run ANY chemical filtration in any of my tanks. Just chaetomorpha in a sump with one kessil over it, some carbon, and some other tweaks that noone cares about. I have crystal clear water at all times.

Same... No carbon ever. Filter floss, filter foam, ceramic and purigen for polishing the tannins since my discus tank used driftwood and peat to buffer ph

 

[Aqua Man]

Did some sumps and refudges. Bioballs, foam and filter floss in trickle filters once in a blue moon sand. Trickle fileters would kick ass on a hydro system