# What is the right light for fish and plants



## looniebin (Jul 15, 2010)

I am new to this freshwater live plantation. 

I bought these corkscrew val and ludwigia repens from Big Al a week ago. I place them in my 38G tank filled with platies and swordtails. 

The plants were green and red when i first got them. Now they turn yellow and some of the leaves are rotten. 

I wonder if perhaps there is not enough lights for the plants. I got my 38G from big al. It comes with everything, the lid, lights, tank, etc so I am not sure if maybe I am suppose to change the light?

But if I do, dont fish gets stress out with intense lights? 

So I dont get it and pretty confused. If the plants need extra lights, my fish will get stress out? The purpose of me starting buying plants is to provide hide out so hopefully I'll see fry soon but the plants are dying. Any suggestion?


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

It's due to low lighting as most aquarium hoods are only to show your fish off rather than grow plants. The platies and swordtails should be okay with brighter lights. 
What type of lighting do you have?


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## looniebin (Jul 15, 2010)

I am not sure what type of light I have. I bought a tank kit from big al. It is the 38G tank kit. I tried to look at the light and I think it is 6 watt. 

Can this tank kit light be replace and if it can, to what type of light should it be change to (that would be good for the plant and fishes)


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## acropora1981 (Aug 21, 2010)

looniebin said:


> I am not sure what type of light I have. I bought a tank kit from big al. It is the 38G tank kit. I tried to look at the light and I think it is 6 watt.
> 
> Can this tank kit light be replace and if it can, to what type of light should it be change to (that would be good for the plant and fishes)


Not likely 6 watts; 38 gallon tank is what 36 inches long?

Is it a tube light (like a fluorescent tube), with two pins on either end? I imagine that it is. You should be able to look at the wattage on the bulb.

In any case you said some of the plants were red? Red plants need CO2 and high/med light.

You can likely replace the light, but you will not be able to keep the canopy, as most higher intensity lights dont fit in those plastic canopies. If it is a glass lid, then you can keep that and simply buy a higher output light. If you want to do a low tech tank, go with 2 T8 flourescents. If you want a high tech plant tank with CO2, go with 2 x HOT5 fixture.

Planted tanks are somewhat daunting at first, as there is a LOT information out there. Took me a few months to figure it out, its actually quite complex...


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## qwerty (Dec 15, 2009)

I made the same mistake and bought one of those everything included setups.

Unfortunately these setups usually aren't aimed to the plant enthusiasts. But you can work with them.

As far as stressing the fish goes... That usually isn't a big problem (usually).

Plants provide shade... And the sun in nature is far brighter than your aquarium lights.

So unless you've got some exotic deep sea creature or some blackwater specimens, it shouldn't pose a problem.

Even then, you're always free to tannin stain your water to subdue the lighting a bit.

Anyways. A really good book to start understanding how planted aquariums work is Diana Walstad's _Ecology of the Planted Aquarium_. I always recommend that book to people if you're interested. But there's no shortage of information online.

Plants add another aspect to keeping your aquarium, and they can be challenging to figure out at first. But once you get the hang of them and get over the initial hurdle of acquiring knowledge, I think you'll find the learning curve starts to level off and becomes much easier. Once you've gotten the hang of it, you'll be putting plants in every tank you set up. (You'll set up more tanks in the future whether you know it yet or not, btw )


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## acropora1981 (Aug 21, 2010)

qwerty said:


> Once you've gotten the hang of it, you'll be putting plants in every tank you set up. (You'll set up more tanks in the future whether you know it yet or not, btw )


lol soooo true on both counts


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

my vals have always had parts that die off once I planted them in my tank. I think this is just a sign of them establishing to your water and light set up. I have 3.2wpg of T5HO lighting and my current vallisneria americana's have dead leaves. I bought the plants a week ago, but I'm sure they will rebound. 

l. repens will only stay red if you have higher light.

When you turn off your lights tonight take a look at the bulb and you should see some text. it'll look like a code probably. post that here and I'm sure someone will be able to help figure out what type of bulb you have. if you can't read it don't flick your light on, like I just did ><

Check your hood too, as it will also have information about what the max wattage is.


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