Every house has a personality that comes forward with the help of how any house is decorated. Among such decorations, aquariums are ever famous. Once you get the hold of basics aquariums are the easiest to handle.
When it comes to plant life in the aquarium, a lot of things can be done to make the plants grow better and healthier. One such key object is the aquarium light. How to know which is the best suitable light for your aquarium that can help the plants grow better and stay healthier.
Different types of aquarium lights and their benefits:
Like humans, plants need food to grow. They make their food with the help of light under water and above water both. Different plants flourish in different lights. So, it’s very important to know the type of your plant and the light that will suit it best. You will need to have detailed information about the plant you have in your aquarium, for example, how sensitive your plant it to light exposure and heat that’s emitted from the light.
LED Growth lights:
LED lights, with the best technology available, will not only provide the PAR needed for the specific plants of your aquarium but it may even exceed it. Here is the comparison of all positive and negative aspects of the LED lights to help you understand better.
Advantages:
- Doesn’t over heat: It doesn’t over heat the aquarium, it keeps the water temperature as it is.
- High Output: The drivers are high output and the noise level is at minimum level, barely audible like a pleasant hum in the background.
- Convenient and easy to install: LED lights are the best to install, you wouldn’t require to mess with glue or any kind of tools to hang the light.
- Low Cost maintenance: It’s easy to take our clean and assemble back again. It’s very user-friendly as well. Being low maintenance makes it very popular among aquarium owners
- Efficient: When it comes to energy consumption, LEDs give you the best value for money.
- Growth Enhancer: Because you can measure and control the wavelength of the LED light you will have full control over how much light the plant takes in, this means with satisfactory absorption the plant will flourish better.
- Extended Lifespan: They burn up to 50,000 estimated hours, which means comparatively lesser replacements.
Disadvantages:
There are some disadvantages as well.
- Wavelength: Getting it right can be very tricky but not impossible, it can be achieved with the use of controllers and drivers.
- Light at the Bottom of the Tank: You might need to install a set of two lights if you have a deep tank to have sufficient light that reaches the bottom easily.
- Heat: Compared to old-style metal halide system, LED emit less heat but still it can be more than enough for plants that are highly sensitive to heat.
- Expensive: One-time cost of the LED light is pretty high but they make up for it in value. It can go as high as $150 per light for large and deep tanks.
Metal halide lights
Another type is Metal halide lights:
Advantages:
- They are best suited for salt water aquarium as they require more heat than fresh water aquariums
- Tanks such as Reef tanks stand to gain a lot from Metal halide lights.
- Large tanks that go as deep as 24 inches should have Metal halide lights as well.
Disadvantages:
- These are the high intensity lights, they discharge more heat than LED ones.
- Because of high heat generation, chillers or coolers are a must.
- They aren’t very economical as well.
Conclusion:
Know your plant before investing in aquarium lights. Best light will make your plant and aquarium creatures thrive and live longer. You can check out more good information at kobipets blog.