Lighting question.

Hi guys,

I have a ciano emotions 80. Its just under 150l and the light on it is a white LED and it’s 28 watt. I was wondering how I would find out if it’s bright enough for my plants? I’m thinking about adding a pink and blue light (apparently helps plants more) this is the one I’m looking at. Would this make much difference to the health of the plants?

Thanks,

TT

I would be very wary of that light. The one thing that is critical for planted tanks is spectrum (along with intensity obviously) and they don't give any data to indicate this. The Kelvin rating would help, or even the CRI (Colour Rendering Index). The photos all look too goulish/purple.

Tropical Tony said:

a pink and blue light (apparently helps plants more)

Click to expand...

Plants need red and blue light to drive photosynthesis, and red is the more important of these two. But studies determined that adding green to red and blue improved plant growth; probably because this wavelength combo is closest to mid-day sun. An easy way to assess spectrum is Kelvin. This combo should be aroound 6500K. There are many aquarium fluorescent tubes with this Kelvin and they work well. You can lower this a tad, around 5500 for a bit more red (warmth). LED is available in these K ranges, but the linked product unfortunately does not say yea or nay on this.

Thanks Byron,

just some digging and found this. Any use?

That suggests high red and blue, but no green. Aside from what I mentioned previously about green, the three together also allows a true colour rendition of fish, plants, etc. in the tank.