A very handy spreadsheet for calculating light penetration in your tanks. - APE - Aquatic Plant Enthusiasts

ukamikazu · 02-05-2010, 07:26 AM

I found this wonderful spreadsheet created by essabe over at PlantedTank.net and thought I should spread it around for all to enjoy. Another poster, S&KGray, made some fixes to it and here is their final work for you to download into Excel and use. Very handy and, pardon the pun, illuminating. The directions are straight forward and easy. I have found that my own tanks sit in the Bright Lit category pretty consistently.

This will be a great budgeting tool so you can purchase just the right amount of light and makes it easier to leave that old fashioned watts per gallon rule of thumb behind and not buy a PAR meter and measure every fixture that takes your fancy. Definitely a good way to prevent buyer's remorse and second guessing.

Share & Enjoy! I have attached the spreadsheet as a *.ZIP file for your convenience.

AquaZilla · 02-05-2010, 09:42 AM

Nice! Sticky worthy Uka!

ukamikazu · 02-05-2010, 10:15 AM

Done and done, Sir!

AquaZilla · 02-05-2010, 10:46 AM

This will work great for Mac folks!

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...lV2J2MlE&hl=en

agua-newb · 04-22-2010, 06:03 PM

This is a VERY handy spreadsheet!

But I noticed one little thing (and I have no idea if it will affect much)...

When you use it, it first asks you the dimensions of your tank. But after you input all the information and it gives you your answers, the info that it gives you for the height is Height Above Substrate. Except it uses the height of the tank that you put in at first. Now knowing that there should be atleast a few inches of substrate (I use about 3) I took off a few inches of the height and here were my results... (I'm using a 55g btw)

First time (48.25x21x12.75) = 1.93 WPG
Second time (48.25x18x12.75) = 2.25 WPG

Now I know it doesn't really matter much, and I still ended up with the 'Well Lit' result, but I figured I'd bring it to peoples attention in case people wanted to experiement a bit

Big Dog · 04-24-2010, 10:03 AM

Thanks for this information.

patrick076 · 05-10-2010, 03:50 AM

very nice job done i like this work

02-05-2010, 09:42 AM	#2 (permalink)
AquaZilla Administrator Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 2,819	*Nice! Sticky worthy Uka!* __________________ The Planted Aquarium Blog

02-05-2010, 10:46 AM	#4 (permalink)
AquaZilla Administrator Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 2,819	*This will work great for Mac folks!* http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...lV2J2MlE&hl=en __________________ The Planted Aquarium Blog

04-24-2010, 10:03 AM	#6 (permalink)
Big Dog Almost Guru Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Ann Arbor MI Posts: 170	Thanks for this information. __________________ Help those in our hobby to exceed beyond there expectations. [img]http://www.miapg.com/forums/public/style_images/master/logo.png[/img]

05-10-2010, 03:50 AM	#7 (permalink)
patrick076 Junior Member Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 1	very nice job done i like this work __________________ PATRICK THOMSON

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02-05-2010, 10:15 AM	#3 (permalink)
ukamikazu Moderator Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Austin, Texas, USA Posts: 684	Done and done, Sir!

04-22-2010, 06:03 PM	#5 (permalink)
agua-newb Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Columbus Posts: 87	This is a VERY handy spreadsheet! But I noticed one little thing (and I have no idea if it will affect much)... When you use it, it first asks you the dimensions of your tank. But after you input all the information and it gives you your answers, the info that it gives you for the height is Height Above Substrate. Except it uses the height of the tank that you put in at first. Now knowing that there should be atleast a few inches of substrate (I use about 3) I took off a few inches of the height and here were my results... (I'm using a 55g btw) First time (48.25x21x12.75) = 1.93 WPG Second time (48.25x18x12.75) = 2.25 WPG Now I know it doesn't really matter much, and I still ended up with the 'Well Lit' result, but I figured I'd bring it to peoples attention in case people wanted to experiement a bit