Algae are nature's way of purifying water and are a natural part of any aquarium. The truth is that nuisance algae outbreaks are more often caused by nutrient build-up than lighting issues.
Planted aquarium owners rarely need to clean algae even though they use high output lighting because nutrients are quickly utilized by the plants, thus starving any algae. The trick to preventing algae growth is to manage nutrients with regular water changes, chemical filter media and not overfeeding your fish, along with providing the right amount of light. In aquariums, the term "nutrients" refers to nitrate and phosphate, which typically come from fish food and the resulting fish waste.
But there is another source, which is tap water. Many tap water sources contain high levels of these impurities and performing water changes with nitrate or phosphate-laden water will not reduce levels and may even cause them to rise. Choosing the right light for your aquarium enhances its natural beauty and ensures the long-term health of your fish, plants and invertebrate life!
Please join our newsletter , connect with us on Facebook or contact us for more information. Read More. Fish and Plant Needs The number 1 reason to have a light on your aquarium is to enjoy the beauty of the fish, plants and decorations. Light Intensity And Spectrum Not all light is created equal. Type of Light Fixtures There are several types of aquarium lights, allowing aquarists to choose one that best suits their needs and those of their aquarium inhabitants.
Here are some common choices for freshwater aquariums: Standard Fluorescent For years this has been the most common form of aquarium lighting and it continues to be popular today. Aqueon Fluorescent Light Fixtures LED Rapidly becoming the most popular type of aquarium lighting, these energy-efficient lights offer features that aren't available in other aquarium lights. Algae And Light A commonly held belief in aquarium keeping is that too much light causes excessive algae growth.
Popular Blogs. Types of Aquarium Snails Read More. Suggested Products. If other species in the aquarium only need a moderate level of light, buyers will need to determine which species are more preferential than others and choose their aquarium species of plants and fish accordingly, for best results. The species that inhabit aquariums will be impacted in varying degrees by a constant level of light.
To mimic the light available in a species' habitat, aquarium owners can use day and night lighting to approximate the light levels in a natural environment. These night lights, or moonlights, as they are called, allow the fish keeper to observe nocturnal behavior. Tropical fish and plants available for aquariums are from equatorial areas and typically receive around 12 hours a day of light throughout the year.
This makes it unnecessary for hobbyists to make adjustments on complicated timers for the seasons. For these common community aquarium fish, a simple timer will keep the lights on and off the same time every day. Aquarium specimens that hail from more northern or southern areas will need more or less light depending on the time of year, so fish keepers should consider seasons when switching from day to night lighting. Also if the lights are to be on in the evening for viewing pleasure of the family, the tank should not be put near direct sunlight, but allowed to be in the dark for approximately 12 hours a day or more.
Freshwater hobbyists often worry about adding a bright light to their aquarium and think it will cause an excessive algae outbreak. Algae are a natural part of the aquarium.
Excessive algae growth is not caused by bright light alone, it is caused by excessive nutrients in the aquarium water. Once live plants have established themselves, they will start competing with the algae for nutrients. It is always best to start with fast-growing plants or add fast-growing plants when the aquarium has an algae problem.
Green water algae bloom will sometimes occur on aquariums with bright lighting systems. In some cases, the algae bloom may go away on its own after a month of a new cycling aquarium. Green water is caused by single-cell algae that are suspended in the water column, thriving on nutrients in the aquarium. In some cases, the nutrients the algae may be thriving on may be coming from your tap water. The addition of a small ultraviolet sterilizer to the filtration system will eliminate any persistent green water, but thriving live plants will do the trick just the same.
Once the bright light system is well established with plants the algae should no longer be a problem. Many freshwater hobbyists with brightly lit planted tanks will report that they rarely have to clean algae off the tank walls.
When the nutrient level is low, there is very little if any algae growth; however, a low-nutrient environment is a problem for growing healthy plants, so the addition of aquatic plant fertilizers may be necessary to keep your plants growing well.
Bright light also helps enrich the color of the fish. For the discus hobbyist ; don't buy into the myth that discus doesn't like brightly lit tanks. They may need a few days to acclimate to the brighter light, but in time they will settle down, their colors will start to become even brighter, they will grow quicker, they will spawn, and their water quality will improve.
Lighting is a major part of having a beautiful community aquarium. The right lighting is very beneficial to aquatic plant life and therefore, to the fish and aquatic creatures in the aquarium as well. In this way, we can roughly gauge the overall colour rendering tone of the light by reading the spectrum chart.
Does a higher CRI rating on the light matter? In short, it does not. For most aquarium hobbyists, color accuracy is not as important as color saturation. CRI measures color accuracy of light units whereas hobbyist over overwhelmingly prefer lights that have high color saturation and contrast. Again referring to the tank at the top of this page; it's CRI rating is only 78, however, it gives good color saturation and contrast for viewing.
This article explains how the CRI is actually calculated, and why it does not really matter. Read more here on what light spectrum planted aquariums should aim for. Here, the important thing is that the fixture spread must match tank dimensions.
We have found that dual LED fixtures or a T5 array serves complex hardscapes that have shaded areas, as having two or more light sources will tend to reach most areas of the planted tank. A setup with poor spread e. Point sources have circular areas of coverage and are best suited for square planted aquarium or tank dimensions that can be divided into squares with minimal overlap. Aquascaping rocks and other tall hardscape easily block the light from point sources from getting to plants.
A wide angled LED light bar has a dispersion pattern where higher pieces of hard scape can block light from reaching plants behind the hardscape. Object simulated by blue block in the diagram.
A more distributed light source; such as a wider LED array or T5 array will not face a similar issue. Algae control. How to read PAR tables. What light spectrum do plants use for photosynthesis. What does the K in K actually measure. What light spectrum work best for planted aquarium light fixtures. April 02, 2 min read.
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The choice of award-winning aquascapers. Reviews of Lights, CO2, Filters. Reviews of Substrates, Algae Control, Plants. How to I switch from a fish tank to a planted tank? These are the 7 key differences and considerations. Light control, healthy plant mass, tank cleanliness and biological maturity in planted aquarium - these are the 4 main factors to prevent algae growth in planted tank.
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