Do you own and use a Quantum meter

[nanonano]

Reef keeping has progressed in leaps and bounds in recent years and more and more reef keepers are now converting to ULNS and attempting very subtle refinements in not only water chemistry but also in trying to influence the corals themselves.
In one way or another more often than not lighting gets the blame for most of our reef keeping problems, so i was wondering just how many people own and use a quantum meter to monitor PAR output from lighting and also monitor levels that specific corals are being exposed too.

Please feel free to not just complete the poll but to also elaborate your thoughts.

Thanks
Paul

[kim]

I don't have a tank right now (long story) but I do have a Quantum Meter.

Oh well, it's good for the orchids. Can't stop them flowering. :laugh:

Good things.

(i) Your eyes won't spot a slow declining of a lamp's power.

(ii) You can get a lot of data via the web (or eg Andy Hipkiss's site) on the PAR used to maintain corals in a tank, or the natural PAR on a reef. So a PAR meter can help you judge where you are.

Bad things:

(i) It costs money.

(ii) PAR isn't everything. Lumens isn't everything, as well, of course - both are crude measures to say the very least. PAR is probably the more useful, but it's still a little undercooked and non-specific.

You need to have other measures (or estimated data) if you are truly attempting to be rational. A par meter (of whatever make) is not a "solve it all in all cases" tool. It's just another part of the kit. Probably most people could spend their money in more productive ways.

Eg a par meter (like one that measures lumens) will not measure UV (they both only measure visible light). Some people want a bit of UV....eg many SPS keepers say that this is one of the keys to coloration. A par meter won't help measure that (it can't see it, let alone measure it, and forget about it reporting it as a separate item !). Lumens meters won't help either - same reasons.

As an aside, the Quantum Meter is not comparable to a scientific instrument in measuring PAR. The makers are entirely honest about this - that the only way it is nearly affordable. I think that for reefers the difference is totally inconsequential.

I'm glad I have one. But it's the sort of thing you would get after everything else, unless light was your passion and fetish.

kim

[powder]

can you add another poll option

wtf is a Quantum meter???

reading your & kims post i now know what one is! very educational this site :)

another poll option

do you really need one?

[kim]

Powder,

I don't think that you need one, I think that it is however an advantage to have one.

But, being realistic, even if there is an advantage, there might be other priorities.

I have one because (i) light is a passion for me. I have always been fascinated by it (ii) I not only aspire to a reef but have a passion (yes, another one) for plants (iii) as a single person with few outgoings I can, within reason, indulge myself.

I bought the thing mainly to design reflectors for my lamps. Being passionate about these things, I don't accept the commercially available stuff. It is, mostly, crap.

For this purpose, a cheap lumens/lux meter would have been quite sufficient. But, for a few (well, quite a few) more quid I could get something with a bit more use to it. So I did. An indulgence.

If you get really "serious" about the hobby, you will find that almost all academic papers talk about PAR, not lumens/lux. So a PAR meter might be better if you wish to compare your conditions with those discussed. Even then, however, PAR does not provide a breakdown of the spectrum of light that your lamps provide, which may be very different to the spectrum of the light experienced in nature, and to which these academic papers refer.

I think that some kind of "lightmeter" would be very useful, but maybe not essential for many reefers. Amongst generally available lightmeters, a PAR meter would (despite the limitations) be the best kind of lightmeter to choose, and the Quantum probably the only one close to most people's budget.

But it is still a luxury item. Most people have a few more pressing priorities.

kim

[nanonano]

I fully agree that to really get to grips with things you would need a quantum meter, a UV meter to read the 250 to 400 nm range, a lux meter and also a spectrometer. However having said all of that for the reef keeper perhaps the single most important instrument would be a Quantum meter. With the Apogee quantum meter costing £200 its just as affordable as say a vortech pump or a Zeolith reactor.
Setting up and running an ULNS isn't cheap either and here we are talking about taking things to the Nth degree and potentially trying to controlling zooanthallae and influence coral colouration, so i was interested to know how many people go to those sort of expenses and yet see a quantum meter as an out and out luxury item.
I read more and more posts where people are using MH 75w 150w even 250w on nano tanks and i would hazard a guess that in most cases they are far exceeding the saturation points of the corals they keep. With energy costs at the levels they are perhaps a quantum meter would soon pay for itself in enabling us to run our reef in a more economical manner. Perhaps i should start thread " can we and do we over illuminate our reefs", on the face of it a simple question but with many complex answers.
I truly believe we are not far off of the time when as end users we will be able to control intensity, spectrum, PAR etc not just of our tank as a whole but also by specifically targeting individual corals, a lighting system that we can configure as we wish and yet to a greater extent we are still in the dark ages and refer to watts per gallon or watts per sqm.

Regards
Paul

[kim]

I'd agree with a lot of that.

Though exceedng the satuation point might (might....) be necessary to bring out colours in SPS. Is that is true, if so how much should we do it, and if we don't know those answers, what will the Quantum do for us ? And it doesn't measure UV............

I think for most, trial by jury works. Ie do your lamps get the results you want. A PAR meter may not be the best judge of this.

As a nerd I am always looking for the formulaic answer. As a realist, I don't think there is one. And as an enthusiast, I'd say keep looking.

kim

[the newbie]

i dont own one bit if i had the space i would do god i need a celler lol