Lighting & How Much
The number one thing your plants need is lighting. Without it, they'll perish and wilt. It is the driving force of growth and can either grow or crash your scape. Check our our recommendations for success.

Source: Chihiros Aquatic Studio

1
Flourecent vs LED
For many years, fluorescent tubes have been king in the lighting world. Providing various colour spectrums to grow plants well. Many have had great success with them. However, they are costly to run, require to be replaced more frequently than LED's and the Ballast can run hot. However, as technology has evolved LED lights have taken over the market. Due to their energy efficiency, plant growth results and remarkable app controlled technology. Certain lights can be modified in the app to control individual spectrum to gain the right spectrum required.
2
Lighting Effects on Plants
The science behind the lighting effects on plants is remarkable. Plants primarily utilise, White, Blue and Red. These are your base colours. They reflect green and barely use any of it, that's why we see green, as they reflect it. Having an excess of light will demand excess growth, as a result algae can form as well as deficiencies.
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Colour temperature is the measurement in which we gauge intensity and spectrum exposed. Typical LED lights are set to 6200K (Kelvin) The higher the colour temperature, the blue it will appear. The further down the range, the more red it will appear. 6200K is your mid range. Staying near this bracket will allow you to have a healthy aquascape.
3
Time & Lighting
It is quite common for us to discover customers lights are on for 10-12 hours per day. This is totally acceptable for fish, however do expect to see some algae and some stressed out plants. Our recommendation would be to set your light onto a timer to 6-8 hours per day.
If your aquascape is low energy, we would advise to stick to the lower end of this time frame, 6 hours per day is comfortable for plant growth without asking for alage to enter.
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High energy aquascapes are seen at 7-8 hours per day. Plants can take 8 hours a day due to additional support via CO2 and Rich Type fertilisers. The timer set can be set to any time of day that suits. Many set it to evening time due to their working hours.
4
Which Brand?
The lighting market is varied but the options for high quality lights that can be adjusted to suit can be limiting to suit the right tank. If you are searching for plant preferred lighting, we would recommend the following:
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Twinstar
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Fluval Aquasky
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Chihiros Aquatic Studio
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Kessill
These lights are varied in their application and result. We advise to look at comparisons via YouTube and decide for yourself what will suit your tank. If in doubt, feel free to reach out to one of our aquarists.

Get in Touch
If you require additional help, please get in touch and chat to one of our aquarists. We're readily available on Facebook, Instagram, Email or simply call us.