LED light

[strangelove]

Hello all,

I bought the Aqueon 8g Evolve a few weeks ago and have been running it with some live plants for a couple weeks now (no betta yet, he is on the way from Thailand as we speak).

I thought everything looked great at first, but then my plants lost a lot of leaves, etc. I panicked but then realized this may be normal when plants are adjusting to a new tank? Anyhow, I pruned them and things started to get back on track. They definitely are growing, as I am seeing new sprouts (for lack of a better term - I am new to live plants!). But I've just dealt with a smaller loss of leaves again. I cleaned out the dead stuff and things look clean again, but some of the plants have practically no leaves left on them and look a little sad.

I suppose my big question at this point is - is the LED light that came with the tank sufficient for plant growth over the long term? I've noticed a lot of people mentioning here that with fluorescent bulbs, the best way to judge is by the Kelvin rating. Is there any sort of gold standard for LED yet? I know the plants are growing but I'm wondering if they'd be doing better otherwise.

Thanks!! Oh and PS, the plants I have are (from what I can tell) http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...ils.php?id=124 and http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...ils.php?id=222...plus 2 moss balls.

[starrlamia]

it should be fine for low light plants, unfortunately you have a medium and high light plants which could be why they are shedding leaves. I would recommend replacing them with low lights, some good stems are moneywort, wisteria, cabomba.

[strangelove]

Gah, I knew I was missing some key point in all this! I hadn't even thought about that. Live and learn huh? Thank you, I will definitely look into some low light plants.

[strangelove]

I guess I should ask another question - it is normal for some leaves to die off here and there, right? I'm assuming they're like non-aquatic plants where old stuff dies as new stuff comes in?

[starrlamia]

yeah usually you will see die off when you add them to a tank, but after that they really shouldnt be shedding a lot of leaves, one or two here or there but more than that and there is an issue.

[strangelove]

Thanks, I appreciate it!