Here is their comment: "Great question! We have used the PAR meter for Neptune systems in our T5 and Metal halide tanks with great success and it works as well as any PAR meter currently available. For LED PAR readings will be slightly off depending on what color LED is turned on and will not give 100% accurate readings for growth. You will want to consider the Seneye as an alternative option which has better reading of LED light. Feel free to let us know if you have any further questions!" Answer by: Connor (Admin) on Mar 23, 2016 10:50:00 AM
If your acclimating then like around 150. Then over time can increase to around 250 or slightly higher. That's worked well for me. I normally dont place corals higher then 300 but near the surface if they grow out into higher pars and are use to it then no problem. there is no golden number for all acros but around 250 is what most aim for.
If you are running an extremely blue look to your tank, it will be off by a small factor. And there is a chart to adjust if you wish. But the real advantage of the PMK is to read the total (read the average) PAR in a 24 hour period. Do this by placing it in your tank in the spot you want to measure, leaving it for a day, and then go to the chart for PAR. Click 1-day at the top and then you will see the highest PAR and the average PAR listed below the graph. Now, if you make light changes (ramp up/down, color), you can run it for another day and see how much extra (accumulated) light your tank gets simply by looking at the average PAR. It is a relative number. You can also compare these numbers with others who have the PMK.
Keep in mind that is only measures one spot. You will not move it around the tank so it will not be as useful as you think expect. It is a coax condition, isn't it? I wish we can just buy the PAR probe and plug it into the ORP port and the software can tell (or be adjusted) to see it as PAR measurement. Even if it could, they won't because it is profit down the drain. Oh, $299 is a ripoff. Anything that is $x99.99 always feels like a ripoff to me. They just throw the number out without feeling how much it hurts our pocket. They know they are monopolizing this market and it looks like they are controlling how much the retailers are setting the prices. REEFKEEPING IS TOO EXPENSIVE AND ONLY FOR THE RICH WITHOUT BRAIN.
We are sorry you to hear you feel that way. If you go out and look at the Apogee sensors on the market, you will see that they cost more than the PMK and cannot be connected to the Apex. With a PAR sensor connected to the Apex you can measure/log the total accumulated light hitting a spot in your reef. Then, if you make changes to your lighting like the ramp up and down or the spectrum, you can see the relative difference those changes made in total light across the day. Something referred to as DLI. There are many other choices out there for a PAR reading device so we hardly monopolize it. Here is a link to the Apogee meters - they all cost more than this kit. tinyurl.com/y7sjtw6e
Please don't selectively compare (to Apogee). Please also address other points. One spot can hardly tell the whole picture, right? Can it support a 2nd or 4 sensors? Why can't the sensor be plugged into the ORP port? Technically impossible or Neptune chose not to because that doesn't bring in $? Are you guys controllering the pricing of the retailers? Why not give them the freedom to create competition and drive the prices down so that more customers can enjoy reefkeeping?
The price of a quality aquarium and control solution has never been lower. In fact, our product is cheaper now than it was 20 years ago, without adjusting for inflation! The original AquaController was $350 and did not come with an Energy Bar, salinity probe, ORP probe and calibration solutions. There are plenty of PAR meters more expensive than the one from Apogee. The purpose of this sensor is more than just ongoing measurement in one spot, it has many other helpful functions - such as using it to know when you left your lights on manually by accident, for sharing the data with other reefkeepers when you trade corals, adjusting your lights with logged data, and much more. If you want to buy multiple PMK you are free to do so. Just like buying more than one pH probe and PM1 module. The sensor cannot plug into a pH or ORP port because it uses a different voltage range. If you want a cheap PAR reading solution, simply buy an Apogee sensor for $200 and then connect it to a multimeter. You will be 2/3 of the way to the price of the PMK and not have all of its advantages of Apex connectivity. I don't think you are necessarily looking to be convinced. Reefkeeping is not an inexpensive hobby. We have brought a scientific instrument to the reefkeeping hobby at what we think is a competitive price. Get it today while the Black Friday sales are going on and save $30. :)
