Planted Tank Lights?

[KukaaKatchou]

So now that I am going to try for another planted tank, I need to think about changing the lighting. I have a Tetra Crescent 5 gallon tank and their site says the light is good for fish but not plants. I found an interesting light on Marineland and then priced it .... 400$ !!! Soooo I was wondering what lighting system I could get that won't cost me a fortune? What do you guys use?

[Oldfishlady]

If your hood uses florescent-just change your bulb to a 6500k daylight-you can usually find them in home depot, lowes or wal mart lighting department for under $10.00-That will work fine for the low to moderate need plants.

What kind of plants do you plan and type of substrate...

[KukaaKatchou]

Ok I bought a new clip on lamp (from the reptile section) - my other light was LED - and I got a 15W Life Glo bulb 6500K. Hopefully this will do the trick!

[Oldfishlady]

That should work, however, that is a lot of watts over a 5gal tank and you might have some algae problems-but if you add some floating plants like water lettuce and lots of stem plants will help as well as raise the light source up to at least 6-8inches above the water.

Are you going open top and what kind of plants do you plan...

[KukaaKatchou]

The lamp is raised up a bit. I have an anubias Nana and a moss ball atm, but am looking for a Java Fern and some other plants - maybe Pennywort and Anubia Barteri var. coffeefolia . I have a pair of Otos to help with the algae. I could also shorten the time I leave the light on, I imagine. I have a clear plastic top on my tank.

[MSG]

Be careful with those clip on lights. If you ever knock the thing off the clip and the lamp falls in the water.

I would stick with fluorescent but swap out the bulb to one with a higher spectrum one like OFL suggested.

[kfryman]

Originally Posted by MSG

I would stick with fluorescent but swap out the bulb to one with a higher spectrum one like OFL suggested.

You can't swap out the diodes with LED lights, they are there for good.

What place did you get the light at? I may look for that.

[KukaaKatchou]

I just went to my loocal pet store. Got the light in the reptile section and the bulb in the fish section. You can also hang the lamp from the ceiling if you want - it has a connector for that.