PARwise is an intelligent new light sensor from ITC Reefculture which aims to help shed some light on what is going on in our aquariums. The new PARwise appears to share some DNA with the Seneye from ITC Reefculture’s parent company but we’ve been assured that this PAR meter will do a whole lot more than the single purpose Apogees some of us occasionally use to measure light.
ITC Reefculture developed the PARwise to be easy to use, affordable, and fully submersible to report back much more than static PAR values, including the characterization of the light spectrum and an approximation of the Kelvin color temperature. Another measurement that will be provided by the PARwise is the ‘daily light integral’ or DLI, a metric of light which calculates how much energy our corals will receive over the course of a full day or photoperiod.
The PARwise will plug directly into any USB outlet of a computer and all you need is a modern web browser like Chrome to measure PAR, CCT, LUX, DLI etc. so no delay in measurement, and no registration required – just plug it in and start measuring the light field inside your aquarium. It seems rather fitting that the company which brought us a device with a light output for a very specific application will soon be offering us a product which does the opposite, a device which takes light in for an equally important task.
ITC Reefculture expects to launch the PARwise in the third quarter of this year for a very reasonable $200 and if you’re at InterZoo, check out this nifty new smart PAR meter for yourself at their booth in Hall 4.
