PAR of Various T5 Bulbs

[Piper]

Anybody know a source for PAR values on various T5 bulbs? As it is, I'm writing the manufacturers to try to find out. I need PAR values on 36" 39w T5's, ATI Blue Plus, ATI Blue Special, KZ Fiji Purple and Aquasuns. Leads appreciated. Thanks.

[Piper]

Can't find PAR or LUX ratings on a single one of these. Found a dead link to a study a guy named Grim Reefer on ReefCentral had done. Sent him a note to see if there's a new link. Interesting, you'd think this info would be on a white sheet from each manufacturer. 

[John Ford]

ATI
Sun Pro 357
Aquablue 336
Blue Plus 311
Actinic 137

D&D/Giesemann
Midday 325
Aquablue 324
Actinic Plus 264
Pure Actinic 157

UVL
Aqua sun 345
Actinic White 293
Super Actinic 210

AquaZ
Sun Pro 285
Ocean Pro 323
Blue Pro 266

Helios
Daylight 309
Super Blue 225

Current Sun Paq
Daylight 10K 272
Blue 252

GE Daylight 340

 

Ill keep looking. I cant find Grims page anymore

[John Ford]

I'm not sure if that was Steve Wrights info or ThatGrimGuys info. It was copied from 3reef just so proper credit is givin..

[John Ford]

Here is a comparison of ATI purple plus and KZ figi purple


ATI is the actual spectrograph, and the KZ is the rough red line.

[John Ford]

http://www.3reef.com/forums/t5-aquarium-lighting/t5s-q-54866.html#.Uv-C1Pk7ssA

 

I got to get back to family stuff. Still cant find all of Grims info..

[Piper]

Thanks for all this. I'm not sure how to use it. Are the values listed specifically for 39w T5's and do I add them all together? I think I had 8 blue plus, 4 blue special, 4 KZ FP, 4 Aquasuns. At a glance, I suppose the cumulative PAR for all my bulbs, if these are all 36" 39w T5 values would be something north of 6000? I'm probably not understanding precisely.

 

The exercise here is to try to figure out how high I can/should ramp up my new LED's. Full sun, 100%, looks about the same visually as my T5's. I had 20 36" T5 bulbs on my 220gal combined wattage of 780. I understand that visually is not the way to make the judgement though. My entire family wants to crank up the LED's. I'm trying to figure out how high how soon.

[BowieReefer84]

I would start led's at no more than 50%, and see if things start to bleach/brown, and go from there. Goodluck!

Edited February 15, 2014 by BowieReefer84

[Origami]

PAR is additive telling you the density of light falling within a certain band (loosely defined as "photosynthetically active") but says nothing about the color or the spectrum of the light otherwise. There was a link years ago (I think it was Grim's personal site) that gave PAR measurements for various lamps. This may have been the dead link that you came across. A lot of the output of a lamp has to do with how hard it's driven by the ballast, so tables like this have limited value. A PAR meter can help you to get in the ballpark of intensity if you achieve the color balance that you like.