LED lighting for plants

[Ubertuner]

I am pretty new to aquariums. I have a couple of plants in a 10 gallon tank with a goldfish and I was wondering what type of light source would be best. Right now I have a marineland hood with about 18 LEDs that are not super bright. How bright would they need to be and how many to really keep the plants healthy? Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!


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[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

Planted tanks do best with 6500k or 6700k lighting, whether it's LED's, T8's, T5's, etc.... So you want to have a light fixture that has 6500k or 6700k.

 

[HybridHerp]

well, first off, goldfish and planted tanks are a bad mix since goldfish eat most plants. Secondly, a goldfish outgrows a 10 gallon

The lighting you want depends on the kind of plants you want. Too bright and you will need to run co2, less bright and you can't grow certain plants (which isn't a bad thing).

Given that you are knew to aquariums, I'd first think about what you are doing with that goldfish in the long run. Then, if you remove the goldfish, you can come back to this question. If you did do plants though, I'd suggest doing a low tech setup, as I'm not sure its a great idea to tell someone new to aquariums in general to go all out and do a high-tech planted tank with co2 injection and the whole bit.

 

[Brazzen1]

Hi & welcome new aquarist. I am using a Marineland led hood with my Java fern & Java moss and they are growing like crazy, even had pearling from my fern. I got them for free from work so I thought that I'd give them a try, no ferts or anything. It's true about the goldfish, but that's already been said so I wont dwell on it although there are a whole lot of different fish for that size aquarium and they will take care of the plant nutrients. BTW you could also try Anubias, I haven't tried it yet but will soon.

 

[Curtis Rouse]

I have Anubias in my 55g with 2 Marineland LED hoods and it's doing great (even if my jack dempsey chews on it here and there). No ferts, no co2, and Petco sand substrate. The Amazon sword on the other hand us doing terribly.

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[Pole]

Agreed, aqua too small for goldfish, and it depends on wat species of plant do u want

 

[Brazzen1]

My melon sword has been under my marineland led hood for a month and is doing good. I do dose 1x/week with Flourish Comprehensive.