Lighting for a Planted Aquarium

After doing months of articles on fish, I've decided to look at a very important lesson that a lot of people have not learned. This is how to choose your lighting for a planted tank. You can either have beautiful and thriving plants or you can have stunted and half-dead ones.

First and foremost, when outfitting an aquarium, you have to meet the needs of the fish, rather than those of your plants. Animals have a more sensitive reaction to cold or dirty water than plants do. Nevertheless, plants have some special requirements, especially lighting. . Fish and plants look more natural when lighting that resembles normal daylight illuminates them.

Light is the most important factor for good plant growth. Plants need the light as a source of energy to maintain their growth. Because most aquarium plants are tropical, they need more than just direct sunlight coming into the tank from your window or room lighting. In non-tropical countries, the summer sun is too bright and too hot. As a result, you get a lot of algae built up on your plants and in your tank. In wintertime, on the most part, it is too cold and the light is just too weak for the plants. With inadequate lighting and cooler temperatures, your plants become stunted.

For these reasons alone, artificial lighting is needed

Period of exposure to light in the tropical climates is between 12 to 14 hours all year long. In an aquarium, these plants need the same amount of lighting that they get in their native tropical climates. Therefore, you either have to put your lighting system on a timer or be faithful and turn your lights off and on for the required amount of time.

The intensity of the light is another major requirement. Plants take millions of years to adapt to the light of their native surroundings. Many species of tropical plants, especially the red leaf type, are very much light lovers. Others, for example, like the species Cryptocoryne will do great in shade.

For fluorescent lights with a daylight spectrum, the rule of thumb is 1 watt for every two quarts of water. Energy efficient lamps have a higher out put. Spiral fluorescent tubes are substantially brighter than straight ones. The luminosity of lumilux tubes is about 30 % greater. For these lamps, 0.3 watts per quart of water is more than sufficient.

The deeper the light penetrates into the water, the more it diminishes. That is, the top of the tank will get more light. If your large background plants are thriving and the small ones in front are not, you should choose different types of tubes that are more luminous. You could also install another fluorescent tube. The same is true with a tank that has been prepared with peat. The brownish color of the water causes more light to be absorbed and less reaches the plants.

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