November 21, 2022
Can you guess what new product Biotek Marine has working on lately by looking at the above picture? Well, if you guessed a new BioTek Marine USB BTM3000 PAR Sensor with Aquarium Specific Software then you would be correct. As of this blog article BioTek Marine is now shipping it’s USB PAR sensor into the marketplace. The BioTek Marine PAR sensor is the result of a collaboration which began about a year ago when Scott Groseclose from Aquarium Specialty reached out to Apogee Instruments with an idea to co-develop a USB PAR sensor geared towards aquarists. Apogee began to research and develop the new chip design while BioTek Marine specified the software requirements. If you find yourself asking “how is it different from the Apogee MQ200 PAR Meter?”, then READ ON……
Like the more expensive MQ200 model, the new BioTek Marine USB PAR model will offer data logging. However, BioTek Marine has included some other nifty software features not available in the MQ200 (future upgrade). The PAR sensors are laser etched with the BioTek Marine name and they will come standard with a 15 foot USB cable. The firmware will be be downloadable to any PC or MAC (MAC firmware coming soon) device and firmware and updates will be downloadable from the BioTek Marine website.
The first 3 production models will be going to Jake Adam (Reef Builders), Sanji Joshi (Engineer at Penn State University) and Dana Riddle from Advanced Aquarist. With their input we hope to further develop and enhance software features.
Retail pricing for the BTM3000 PAR Sensor is $195.00 vs. about $350.00 for the MQ200 PAR Meter. With a significantly lower price point and software enhancements, we expect the BTM3000 to become a tool every advanced reef aquarist will want to have.
