40 gallon planted aquarium advice!!

[Jake Ledesma]

Hi everyone I’m starting to piece together my 40 gallon planted aquarium. I was wondering what light I should get for the aquarium, and also was wondering if I could plant into only aquarium gravel or do I need other substrate? I wanted to put some driftwood with some Java fern on it and some Amazon swords. But again I wasn’t sure about lighting and substrate. Any and all recommendations/advice is welcomed! Thank yall!

[lefty o]

ill take one ? most plants will do just fine in aquarium gravel. tons of choices for lights, hopefully someone more versed in them than I will be along.

[devind0446]

All plants will do just fine in regular gavel. Make sure you give root tabs to your amazon swords for some nutrients. I'm not sure about which light is best but here is Aquarium Co-ops lighting guide to help you choose. You probably only need low-medium light for java fern and amazon swords.

LED Aquarium Lighting - Aquarium Co-Op

WWW.AQUARIUMCOOP.COM

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One of our most asked questions is, which LED Aquarium Light should I get? In this quick guide I'll give my recommendations.  Definitions: Low light = Undemanding plants, Anubias, Crypts, etc. Medium Light = Stem...

 

[Dancing Matt]

What I think is good to think about is do you want a low, med, or high light setup. I mixed low light plants and high light plants in my first planted tank and I ended up either burning the low light plants or not getting good growth out of the high light plants.

[Ken]

Think about front to back coverage. I started with a Finney Stingray and realized that either the front half or back half of my 40 breeder got light. Most lights are designed for a 12 inch tank. So I bought an Aquaneat to fill it in. That's a lot of light. I'm currently trying to balance time and fertilizer to grow plants and not giant globs of algae. Buy the Kasa timers when you buy lights they are the bees knees.