How to: Natural Planted tank

[acadialover]

I was told no. I have a 3 gallon with led and the anubius is ok, barley

[FishyFishy89]

I've heard of SEVERAL people having success using LEDs with planted aquariums. I say if you can afford it and don't mind giving it a try, go for it. Just don't add any fish unless you know for sure your plants are thriving well under the LEDs.

[JAGalletta]

Originally Posted by FishyFishy89

I've heard of SEVERAL people having success using LEDs with planted aquariums. I say if you can afford it and don't mind giving it a try, go for it. Just don't add any fish unless you know for sure your plants are thriving well under the LEDs.

Let me add a few cents to this...

LED lighting creates several concerns when it comes to plants:

• Color temperature - Always check the output color temperature rating (K value) of the bulbs. Several color bulbs may be required to fulfil the entire spectrum needs of your plants.
• Actual wattage of light output as opposed to wattage of electricity used. This may sound confusing, but be aware that the wattage on an LED bulb is (IMO/E) not directly converted to traditional wattage as from an incandescent bulb or a fluorescent tube. Make sure you provide ample light output for your plants. I go by wattage of electricity being used because of the various qualities of LED light that may skew the perceived wattage of output. e.g. We all know those "super bright" single bulb led flashlights only seem very bright because of the color of the light. Actual light output value in terms of what the plant would receive from the bulb is most likely lower than what you may perceive it to be.

However, I had a coworker once who grew plants under his desk at work. He built his own LED array for the vines to grow on, but one thing he did was to vary the color of the led lights in a rainbow-like progression from red to orange, yellow, blue, green, purple, etc. I think this color changing effect he created accounted for his success in providing adequate lighting conditions for his plants.

There are several led hood setups designed for aquariums, but whether they were designed with plants in mind is a different question. Make sure to check outputs and color temps, and if you do spring to buy one, I'd suggest testing it on another tank before relying on it to keep your NPT healthy.

You may need to fact-check some of this wattage information with some sort of scientist (aka Google) to make sure that I'm right, but this is the general understanding I've come to have over time.

[FishyFishy89]

Most of whom I've seen who successfully used the LEDs did use varying LED colors. One recent person I saw his progression with the plants used a blue, white, blue, white variation for his lights. He was also using these lights for low light plants.

[Oldfishlady]

Originally Posted by Olivebelle

I have the six gallon fluval edge aquarium with halogen lights- I have heard I can replace the lights with LED. Would LED work for a natural planted tank with soil? I currently have plants with gravel with my halogen lights and they looked healthy the first nine months but look like they're dying now. I'm wondering if its contributing to my recent green algae overgrowth too.

I have never personally tried the LED light for a soil based planted tank. From the research I have done, there are some LED light that will meet the needs of aquatic plants-but-boy-O-boy are they expensive. If I could afford some LED lights rated for aquatic plants I would give them a try-If anything to experiment....

If you want to use LED's-I would recommend that you do a lot of research and find the proper LED lights for aquatic plants if you plan to setup a soil based planted system, otherwise the regular LED may not provide enough of the right color temp for plant photosynthesis-with that said, they might work with regular inert substrate with the lower light plants-like-ferns, moss, anubias and some crypts.

And yes, a lot of algae problems are related to the wrong color temp lights, old light bulbs, too short/too long photoperiod, too high watts, plants to close to the light source, poor plant growth that in turn causes high nutrient load as they break down....Proper lights and balance is the key factor in good plant growth that can out compete algae growth.

[carbonxxkidd]

Not sure if this has been asked already but is it possible to start a NPT without using floating plants? Or would it be better to wait until I have a source for floaters before I start one?

[Oldfishlady]

You can start one without floating plants, however, I would be careful with stocking in the beginning-Once the tank is mature and stem plants thriving-you could finish your stocking.

[mellotune]

Do you plant when you put down the dirt or when you put down the cap?

[Sagat]

I planted after I put the cap down, but in retrospect, I'm wondering if my stems would have stayed down better if I had planted them after the dirt.

I had a problem where I couldn't get the roots embedded deeply enough for some stems and all bets were off when I tried to plant a stem clipping... Those suckers always would come right out because they had no root structure to hold them down, though I'm starting to suspect my MTS caused them to pop out by digging under/around them.

[MonteCarlo]

I touched on this earlier but have revised my question. I know you said mature plants with roots will oxygenate the soil, but what about the water itself? There are some fish I'm looking at (not bettas) that prefer water movement since they like well oxygenated water (oto catfish for one, even my white cloud minnows were recommended water movement). Are these fish simply not suited for a mature 10gal NPT that does not have a filter? Do the plants oxygenate the water well?