plants

[honeysuckle11]

Best plants to start in a tank with a led light that gives about 20 watts off for the fish i have in a 30 gal tank? I have 4 guppies 4 serpea tetras 5 glow flow fish 1 blue ram and 1 gold ram and a dwarf clown pleco. Plus my tanks been running for 5 months now about. Thanks for any and all help i can get.

 

[fort384]

What kind of LED fixture is it?

 

[EndlersEatGuppies]

Check out PlantGeek.net - Your Aquatic Plant Resource for some plants.

 

[fort384]

WPG is not applicable for an LED fixture.

 

[EndlersEatGuppies]

WPG is not applicable for an LED fixture.

Oh never mind then.

 

[honeysuckle11]

its a build in one. Like i cant changes blubs i change the whole unit. So its more of a low to a low mid level light.

 

[fort384]

It is a stock LED light that came with the tank? Do you have the specs? Most likely it is not sufficient even for low light plants if it is a stock LED light...

 

[madaboutshrimp]

I've got LED lighting in my 20g and I've got some low light plants that seem to be doing pretty darn well in there. Anacharis, Java Moss, Java Fern and Cryptocoryne Wendtii are all in there and growing like crazy.

BTW my light is stock that came with my Marineland aquarium kit...

 

[fort384]

What kind of LED lighting? LED Lighting varies immensely.

 

[madaboutshrimp]

http://www.amazon.com/Bio-Wheel-Gal...QQKE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1304976090&sr=8-4Whatever stock light that came with my 20g marineland kit I purchased from Petsmart...

http://www.amazon.com/Bio-Wheel-Gal...QQKE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1304976090&sr=8-4
(didn't pay NEAR that price though...)

 

[fort384]

It is a Marineland doublebright LED fixture? That will grow low light plants well.

Again, with LEDs it comes down to the kind, the spectrum, the power, and the color temp. Most stock fixtures are insufficient for plants. The marineland LEDs are not.

 

[madaboutshrimp]

No, it's this one.

Amazon.com: LED Aquarium Light: Home & Garden

I haven't had the tank very long but so far the plants are thriving. My Anacharis is stemming out like crazy...I'm going to have to trim it up soon and it's been in the tank about 2 weeks. The Cryptocoryne has grown really fast as well.

I did quite a bit of research before purchasing most of my plants and that's what I'd suggest the OP do. Research your LED system, ask your LFS(in this case, good idea) and research low light plants.

The ones I picked are really simple to care for, just stick em in the gravel(no ferts needed) or let em float around the tank and they'll grow equally well either way.

 

[fort384]

Very good advice!

Looks like very good low light LED solution.

A lot of stock LED lights have 5 1 W LEDs in them (give or take). They work fine for lighting the fish for viewing, but are not good with plants. Glad to hear you are having success with this one.

 

[madaboutshrimp]

I got really lucky that the fish ladies at Petsmart actually knew what they were talking about. They steered me toward the Marineland setup, glad I bought it. Plus my LFS is actually good at what they do. I've heard a lot of horror stories but mine has been great.

Hopefully the OP will have similar success