Best lighting for aquatic plants?

Subject: Best lighting for aquatic plants? Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:18 am

What do you think is the best lighting for aqua plant? Fluorescent, Metal Halide, Incandescent, halogen, LED's? What spectrum? And does the 3 watts per gallon alway work?
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Subject: Re: Best lighting for aquatic plants? Sat Mar 01, 2008 4:27 pm

I'm going to reply to this even though I don't have probably any of the answers. I think that the watts per gallon rule is somewhat variable depending on the type of lights involved. I would think probably the halide lights for aquariums would be the best, but they also put out a lot of heat and are expensive. I'm using 2 2 foot hardware store fluorescents, 40 watt, for my 10 gallon and I grew all the low-light category of aquarium plants, but could not grow vall, grasses, or other plants needing moderate to high amounts of light. This light could be 4 feet long and still 40 watts, and that would logically be twice the light with the same wattage, but it's not, so that is one example of how the watts per gallon rule is hazy. The other way would be that, for wattage used, halides, flourescents, and halogen lights are different in terms of efficiency, and I don't know which is most efficient. The shape of the tank, deep or shallow, has a lot to do with how much light gets to the plants as well.

Subject: Re: Best lighting for aquatic plants? Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:16 pm

I've been reading that the old VHO's are not as good as the PC's, but the new VHO lights coming out this year are much better. I want to buy one of those small clamp-on-the-back halide lamps. They're very expensive, about $300.00 minimum, but they pack a lot of light and they look really nice. They give a nice ripple effect as the light passes through the surface of the water and creates the effect on the features in the tank. I've also been reading that the white and blue combinations are probably good for planted tanks after all. Some people say the blue is only good for coral, but the reading I've been doing contradicts that and says that photosynthesis is photosythesis, and there's not much of a difference in the requirements between coral and plants. I don't like too much blue on my plants preferring more of a warm color for my planted tanks, but as most lights sold today have some blue in their systems I now think that it may be OK.
I've also been looking at the new SHO compact fluorescents that can be screwed into any incandescent outlet. These are pretty cheap, give great light for planted tanks for the money, and can be used with the original hoods designed for incandescent bulbs.

Subject: Re: Best lighting for aquatic plants? Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:51 pm

Compact fluorescents that can be screwed into any incandescent outlets are what I use on my 29 and 20 gallon tanks. they work great and I even removed the 2 small florescent tubes from the 29 gallon and modified it for the compact fluorescents.
I got much better plant growth after doing it and it was brighter, and cheaper.
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Subject: Re: Best lighting for aquatic plants? Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:51 pm

Yep! I'm gona get some of those as they're supposed to be very efficient and a great deal for a really good light for plants. I've been discussing actinic lights in combo with full spectrum, and the consensus is that they're OK in combination with full spectrum bulbs and the plants do benefit from that spectrum, it may just be better to have all full spectrum for maximum growth.

Subject: Re: Best lighting for aquatic plants? Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:17 pm

I have some PC lights over my 8 gallon nano reef, and the corals love it. I do prefer VHO lights for a planted tank, though. Its because the plants love it, but PC lights are too strong and burn the plants. VHO lights are best for a planted tank.
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I have been keeping aquariums most of my life. I have kept both fresh and salt water, cichlids, catfish, loaches, clownfish, wrasses, and everything in between. Feel free to ask me any questions!

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