# PAR Ratings for High, Medium and Low light?



## kcboiz_1568 (Apr 10, 2015)

20,40,60 from my understanding


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Opinions on this will vary considerably. 

To me it's something like 40/75/>>


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Might be easier to list the plants you want to grow and ask if anyone has them in what level of light.


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## philipraposo1982 (Mar 6, 2014)

What's your goals for your tank? Lighting should reflect that, as well as what species you want to grow and how much time you have to maintenance.


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## foster (Sep 23, 2012)

The height of your tank will affect the PAR also.


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## mattsoccer20 (Nov 8, 2011)

philipraposo1982 said:


> What's your goals for your tank? Lighting should reflect that, as well as what species you want to grow and how much time you have to maintenance.


I have a 75 gallon discus tank and i want to grow around low to medium types of plants, but my main goal is to not have to use co2 and ferts to control algae problems. I thinking plants such as amazon swords, crypts, crinums, blyxa, rotala, ludwiga, maybe some dwarf sag or chain sword, and types of hygro's. I want to grow plants like that but also have color enhancement in my lights to bring out the discus colors. I looked into the ray2 and monster ray combo, but that will give me somewhere in the 70's worth of par i believe and ive been told that would be too much and would require co2. Thoughts?


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

If you don't want to use either CO2 or fertilizers, including Excel, you will need to limit the light to about 30 PAR at the substrate. Even then you may have problems if you don't use a fertile substrate and dose Excel. Plants just do a lot better when they have enough nutrients, including carbon to meet their growth needs.


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## mattsoccer20 (Nov 8, 2011)

Hoppy said:


> If you don't want to use either CO2 or fertilizers, including Excel, you will need to limit the light to about 30 PAR at the substrate. Even then you may have problems if you don't use a fertile substrate and dose Excel. Plants just do a lot better when they have enough nutrients, including carbon to meet their growth needs.


Ok. I plan to have a fertile substrate. What if i does excel in my tank once and a while, would medium par lighting (not sure exactly that would in your opinion) be ok then?


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Don't know if it would be quite bright enough, but a Planted+ gets about 35 PAR @ 20.
The Stingray will get about 12 PAR @ 20". But combining them on one tank would add those if they weren't so far apart from each other.
No I don't think the whole bottom would be that level. Just where the beams crossed.
One Amazon Sword will take up one third of that tank BTW when fully grown.
Ludwigia would likely have a hard time till it reached close to the surface.
Blyxa might not work.
DS yes.
Chain Sword yes.
Hygro likely.
crinums have no idea.
Crypts slow but yes.
The Planted+ is a Fugeray with some of the white bulbs swapped for red ones.
Is said to have about 10-15% higher PAR as the red bulbs have most/all of their energy used by the plants.
The Stingray has both blue and red bulbs in addition to the white ones but low on PAR.
An interesting alternative that you can adjust the level of would be a Planted+ on the back and a Satallite Plus on the front. Better PAR than the other combo and the Satallite is dimmable AND you can do it on the red only or the blue only if you want to.


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## mattsoccer20 (Nov 8, 2011)

Raymond S. said:


> Don't know if it would be quite bright enough, but a Planted+ gets about 35 PAR @ 20.
> The Stingray will get about 12 PAR @ 20". But combining them on one tank would add those if they weren't so far apart from each other.
> No I don't think the whole bottom would be that level. Just where the beams crossed.
> One Amazon Sword will take up one third of that tank BTW when fully grown.
> ...


Thanks for the info! So just wondering, why would you put the planted plus in the back? Because it has more par? Just looked into the Satallite plus, looks like a real intresting light for a good price. This light would give only around 24 par to the bottom of my tank according to their website (21") though


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

mattsoccer20 said:


> Ok. I plan to have a fertile substrate. What if i does excel in my tank once and a while, would medium par lighting (not sure exactly that would in your opinion) be ok then?


Excel will definitely help accommodate higher levels of light. It needs to be dosed daily though, because it's only active for ~24 hours. 

Also it's best to plant heavy from the start, rather than adding a few plants at a time for example. Even if you cant get all the kinds you want at one time, just stick something else in there for the meantime.


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## rebelbuck1993 (Sep 3, 2014)

like i said in the PM's the planted plus is your best bet. and you dont need to spend the extra cash on the satellite the planted plus will cover the tank with enough light for you wont be planting right at the glass(if you are have fun cleaning it)


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## mattsoccer20 (Nov 8, 2011)

rebelbuck1993 said:


> like i said in the PM's the planted plus is your best bet. and you dont need to spend the extra cash on the satellite the planted plus will cover the tank with enough light for you wont be planting right at the glass(if you are have fun cleaning it)


Ya it seems the planted plus par is the best suited for my wants but as important as it is to me to grow plants, its also just as important to bring out my discus's colors. What if i were to get 2 24" ray 2 fixtures and then 1 48" monster ray to bring out the discus colors? Would that be just as effective at growing the plants as getting 2 planted plus lights as far as par but would also bring out the colors more on my fish? Just a thought. I want to go through all options lol


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

mattsoccer20 said:


> Ya it seems the planted plus par is the best suited for my wants but as important as it is to me to grow plants, its also just as important to bring out my discus's colors. What if i were to get 2 24" ray 2 fixtures and then 1 48" monster ray to bring out the discus colors? Would that be just as effective at growing the plants as getting 2 planted plus lights as far as par but would also bring out the colors more on my fish? Just a thought. I want to go through all options lol


The Planted Plus is very good at bringing out the colors of the fish, compared to the Ray2. 

I suggest you spend some time reading in http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21944 before you decide to not use fertilizers. Dry chemicals as fertilizers are very cheap and easy to dose, and help even low light plants do much better.


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## philipraposo1982 (Mar 6, 2014)

I have a 75g with only one planted plus and at anything less than 22" you are going to have some algae issues if you not dosing anything. Its too much light. With the amount of light your talking and the types of plants you want to grow you will likely have some bad algae if no co2 source is there daily.

I think you should invest in co2 and get the lights you want. This will open the doors to all kinds of great plants you can grow and grow well. I don't think you will be happy otherwise.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

When dealing/w these lights, numbers on a page don't tell the whole story.
I think it sounds like rebelbuck1993 has actual experience/w the Planted+ on a tank
that is 18" from front to back. I would just get that and see how it does before spending any more.
I don't know Discus so the color that they are is a guess for me. But I just think that
red only light may not be as good as red and blue. But Hoppy did say the Planted+
brings out the color of fish well...so...


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Raymond S. said:


> When dealing/w these lights, numbers on a page don't tell the whole story.
> I think it sounds like rebelbuck1993 has actual experience/w the Planted+ on a tank
> that is 18" from front to back. I would just get that and see how it does before spending any more.
> I don't know Discus so the color that they are is a guess for me. But I just think that
> ...


The 7000K-ish whites have plenty of blue .. The red is a good supplement to the missing parts of the spectrum
soo except for cyan and "violet" it is pretty full spectrum, but a little "humpy"..


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## rebelbuck1993 (Sep 3, 2014)

:hihi: yes i have experience with the 48" planted plus on a 40B for a month while i was setting up my 75g and it grew the plants way to well even front to back considering the light was 16" to the substrate it still threw a good wide beam, and on the 75g the beam is better of a coverage front to back since the height and it is growing rotala rotundifolia stems in the back along with, crypt undulata, java moss, windelov java fern, amazon swords, rotala indica, and making some red stem i have in my 33g long i believe to be a species of ludwigia. and my 75g is still cycling some so not all the plants and driftwood is where i want it right now, height from the substrate to light is 21"


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## mattsoccer20 (Nov 8, 2011)

Thanks all for the help. Ill keep looking into the lights but as of right now im thinking i am going to go with 2 planted plus lights


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