Par – Compare and evaluate values correctly

Dear aquarium enthusiasts, almost everywhere in nature, light is an essential component that makes life possible in the first place. While the natural supply is ensured by the sun in the vast majority of cases, it is often necessary to support artificially created biotopes with additional lighting. This also applies to most aquariums. LED technology is increasingly being used in this segment. This makes it possible to combine individual LEDs with different properties to create an equally specific luminaire or lamp. A usable description of an LED aquarium light or lamp for a binding assessment of its suitability for use in individually planted and/or stocked aquariums always requires consideration of all relevant data. In addition to color temperature, luminous flux and efficiency, this always includes spectral light distribution and photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD). The latter in particular depends on the distance between the luminaire and the measuring sensor. To enable a comparison of our daytime matrix series with other available systems, we had a matrix – equipped with 2 LED modules (approx. 4000K – total 20 watts) – measured at three different distances by ILUmetriX (www.ilumetrix.de). We publish the results (20cm, 50cm, 100cm) in this article. We hope to be able to contribute a little to clarification.