What light for easy aquarium plants?

[OfficialThomas]

I eventually want to add aquarium plants to my setup and am wondering do I need to buy a special aquarium light? I looked at the light that was already on my 20 gallon aquarium (see picture). What plants (if any) would thrive with this light?

 

 

[ScottieB]

Yeah, that’s a traditional fluorescent bulb. It will have no problem growing a lot of plants. You will probably find most folks end up replacing those older fixtures with led ones. The cost of replacing that bulb and running the electricity will eventually make an led fixture more cost effective. 

But if a light can grow algae, it can grow (other) plants. Traditional “low light” plants like Anubias, Java fern, Java moss and pogostemon to name a few. There’s a few others listed on the Coop website that specifies “easy to grow” or “low light”. 
 

[lefty o]

it will probably handle any low, and medium light plants.

[OfficialThomas]

On 8/9/2022 at 8:23 PM, ScottieB said:

Yeah, that’s a traditional fluorescent bulb. It will have no problem growing a lot of plants. You will probably find most folks end up replacing those older fixtures with led ones. The cost of replacing that bulb and running the electricity will eventually make an led fixture more cost effective. 

But if a light can grow algae, it can grow (other) plants. Traditional “low light” plants like Anubias, Java fern, Java moss and pogostemon to name a few. There’s a few others listed on the Coop website that specifies “easy to grow” or “low light”. 
 

Perfect thanks!

On 8/9/2022 at 8:27 PM, lefty o said:

it will probably handle any low, and medium light plants.

Great!

On 8/9/2022 at 8:23 PM, ScottieB said:

Yeah, that’s a traditional fluorescent bulb. It will have no problem growing a lot of plants. You will probably find most folks end up replacing those older fixtures with led ones. The cost of replacing that bulb and running the electricity will eventually make an led fixture more cost effective. 

But if a light can grow algae, it can grow (other) plants. Traditional “low light” plants like Anubias, Java fern, Java moss and pogostemon to name a few. There’s a few others listed on the Coop website that specifies “easy to grow” or “low light”. 
 

How long would you recommend I have it on for if I wanted to get some low light to medium light plants?

[AnimalNerd98]

When first getting plants, you need to give them some time to adjust to your water parameters (GH, KH, nutrient availability, pH, etc.) and lighting. I remember Justin from Ocean's Aquarium talking about how most people only need to have a six hour light cycle for new plants. I think you can step it up to 7 or 8 hours when you have a decent amount of plants and they're all settled in, but beware of algae! If you notice that you are growing a lot of algae, take a step back and readjust your nutrient and light levels. 

[OfficialThomas]

On 8/9/2022 at 11:52 PM, AnimalNerd98 said:

When first getting plants, you need to give them some time to adjust to your water parameters (GH, KH, nutrient availability, pH, etc.) and lighting. I remember Justin from Ocean's Aquarium talking about how most people only need to have a six hour light cycle for new plants. I think you can step it up to 7 or 8 hours when you have a decent amount of plants and they're all settled in, but beware of algae! If you notice that you are growing a lot of algae, take a step back and readjust your nutrient and light levels. 

Got it thanks!

[AnimalNerd98]

I forgot to mention that it usually takes a week or two for the plants to acclimate to your tank. Good luck! 

[OfficialThomas]

On 8/10/2022 at 11:17 AM, AnimalNerd98 said:

I forgot to mention that it usually takes a week or two for the plants to acclimate to your tank. Good luck! 

Got it! Thank you! Can I easily switch lights later on?

[AnimalNerd98]

On 8/11/2022 at 10:49 PM, Thomas H said:

Got it! Thank you! Can I easily switch lights later on?

Do you mean changing the brand or type of lights you have? If so, then, it might actually cause another period of acclimation. Depending on the light intensity and the amount of different light wavelengths (e.g. blue and white LEDs vs blue, white, and red LEDs), you might have to treat the plants like they are new again and set the light cycle back to six hours. If you ever consider changing lights in the future, make another post and hopefully there will be people who can guide you through what changes you may need to make. 🙂 

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/9/2022 at 7:47 PM, Thomas H said:

What plants (if any) would thrive with this light?

I would ALWAYS recommend for anyone starting out, just to get some anubias that you enjoy.  It's the easiest thing to grow and it's the best way to get started with growing plants.

Second, I would suggest moss.

THEN I would suggest getting into stem plants 🙂

The cool thing is that a lot of plants do not need the beams of the sun itself to grow.  They need "some light".  Anubias does really well and prefers lower light.  This also means you shouldn't place it directly under the beam of light at the top of your tank!!!!  That is where the moss comes in and will do well. 

Why I recommend these two plants, is because they take nutrients from the water column and something like easy green makes it so easy to care for these plants specifically.  Stem plants is where you'd be doing the exact same thing, but also adding root tabs.   There's a lot to dive into, but I highly recommend starting with those two mentioned above and then research stems.

Moss and Anubias you can both use super glue in this fashion.  For moss, cut it into 1/4-1/2" sections and just glue it on.

 

On 8/11/2022 at 9:49 PM, Thomas H said:

Can I easily switch lights later on?

Yes. You can switch lights whenever.  There will be some adjustment, new light might have different features or power, and that is where it might take some time to dial in settings.  You can always change things out and figure out a method for making it work.

However, if your lights right now are underneath a lid that is solid plastic (not translucent) then you'd likely need to find a new lid, remove the lid, or need to cut the lid in order to replace it. 

If your lid is something like this:



You'd have to remove part of the middle section to allow the new light to show through.  Something like this where the middle section is clear and you can shine light through it.



or you could replace it with a standard aqueon versatop lid.

Edited August 12, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[OfficialThomas]

On 8/11/2022 at 11:43 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I would ALWAYS recommend for anyone starting out, just to get some anubias that you enjoy.  It's the easiest thing to grow and it's the best way to get started with growing plants.

Second, I would suggest moss.

THEN I would suggest getting into stem plants 🙂

The cool thing is that a lot of plants do not need the beams of the sun itself to grow.  They need "some light".  Anubias does really well and prefers lower light.  This also means you shouldn't place it directly under the beam of light at the top of your tank!!!!  That is where the moss comes in and will do well. 

Why I recommend these two plants, is because they take nutrients from the water column and something like easy green makes it so easy to care for these plants specifically.  Stem plants is where you'd be doing the exact same thing, but also adding root tabs.   There's a lot to dive into, but I highly recommend starting with those two mentioned above and then research stems.

Moss and Anubias you can both use super glue in this fashion.  For moss, cut it into 1/4-1/2" sections and just glue it on.

 

Yes. You can switch lights whenever.  There will be some adjustment, new light might have different features or power, and that is where it might take some time to dial in settings.  You can always change things out and figure out a method for making it work.






or you could replace it with a standard aqueon versatop lid.
 

Thank you so much! I have the standard aqueon versatop lid. So you think I should just dive into plants and see how they are doing and if I need to get something like a stingray that would be easy to switch to?

[nabokovfan87]

Yeah, no issue at all with that.

ACO will have their light as well soon!

[coffee]

You need no special lights. Low and maybe even Medium light plants should thrive there under right conditions. 

Plants honestly don't really care about the light, just just need light. well.. plants do care about the light, but you don't need anything special like a Fluval 3.0 or Finnex Stingray.

Plants should be okay even under Simple lights such as Aqueon and Nicrew lights just fine.