The Seneye Spectra is an exciting new light measurement tool that should make understanding the quality of our aquarium lights a whole lot more informative. Seneye has developed the Spectra to go way beyond making simple measurements of light quantity in terms of PAR, and blows the doors open on a whole different quality of light, the spectrum.
As the name implies the Spectra is specially designed to capture both the quantity and quality of light with spectrum measurements across all the wavelengths of light that matter to both aquarium plants and corals. The Spectra sensor itself is not just a standalone hardware product as it is supported by an intense spectrum & wavelength analysis tool for the software.
The Seneye Spectra program allows users to compare a given light source with the known light absorption curves for the nuts and bolts that make possible for for organisms to capture of light and convert it into energy. These essential building blocks for light-driven biology include the well-characterized suite of primary photosynthetic pigments like Cholorphyll A & B, as well as accessory pigments like carotein, green fluorescent pigments and more.
At present all we know about the Seneye Spectra is that it will come in a nifty case with all software preloaded onto a flash drive, and a deluxe version will also be paired up with a compatible mobile tablet. At a starting price of $750 the Seneye Spectra will not be an impulse buy, but should make for a very important tool to ‘verify’ new and aging reef lights, and especially for comparing note on which corals do well under which kinds of different artificial light spectra.
