Can Led Lights Grow Aquarium Plants? A Short Guide With The Most Important Rules For Choosing The Ideal Light

Last Updated on July 1, 2022 by Guillermina

Can LED lights grow aquarium plants? Stay with us and learn everything you need to make your aquarium plants thrive.

Aquarium tanks are without a doubt focal points for our homes. They are attractive, but according to experts, they are also significantly useful for our health. Given the huge benefits that aquariums offer, who wouldn’t love to have a unique decoration in their home with beautiful natural-grown plants? However, many will agree that with huge benefits and attractiveness comes a bit of confusion and ambiguity.

If you are a fan of aquariums with beautifully grown foliage, you need proper lighting; otherwise, your plants will not thrive. This is why many ask “can LED lights grow aquarium plants?” Keep reading and find out the answer to this, as well as many other questions that might interest you.

Why Can’t Plants Thrive Without Proper Lighting?

Before we answer the question “can LED lights grow aquarium plants”, you need to understand the critical role that light plays in the lives of your aquarium plants. In short, you can look at light as a source of fuel for your plants, because without it, the process of photosynthesis cannot take place.

However, like everything else, there needs to be a certain balance with light. Namely, if you give the tank too much light, your plants will thrive, as well as different types of algae. On the other hand, if the amount of light is insufficient, the health of your plants will suffer.

A balance in changing the day and night cycle is highly desirable as it has the ability to stimulate the growth of your plants without causing an explosion of the algae population in the tank.

Plants that grow in an aquarium tank that is exposed to direct sunlight will certainly thrive, but unwanted algae will thrive along with them. Therein lays the importance of artificial light, as it can provide more accurate control over your tank’s lighting requirements. Such lights usually have different timers, with which you can limit the amount of light your plants receive to a few hours a day. This will allow your living plants to thrive while limiting the growth of algae.

Can Led Lights Grow Aquarium Plants?

Yes, aquarium plants will definitely grow under LED lights. Most important of all is that the light emits in the right spectrum. As for the full spectrum, it actually means that the color temperature lies between 5’000 – 6’500 kelvins, which actually corresponds to the temperature of natural sunlight.

However, don’t be fooled when buying, because classic LED lights don’t have the right color spectrum to grow aquarium plants in the best possible way. Namely, there are specialized LED lights intended exclusively for this purpose. They are made in such a way that they are very similar in color to natural sunlight. In addition, we must emphasize that they are quite affordable, create little heat, and most importantly, fit common fixtures.

Now that you know the answer to the question “can LED lights grow aquarium plants”, we will try to explain to you what you need to pay attention to when buying LED lamps. Therefore, keep reading and learn how to provide your plants with everything they need for healthy growth and development.

What To Look For When Choosing The Ideal LED Lights?

As already mentioned, it is important that light can meet the needs of the aquarium plant, and this is most easily achieved by emitting the right spectrum or color temperature. When they grow and develop in nature, plants get their light from the sun, however, when grown in tanks, we are the ones who have to make an effort to mimic the daylight in our aquarium.

Read below for the best features that an ideal LED light should have:

• Not less than 50% red light in the wavelength range of 630 – 700 nm,
• Not less than 35% green light in the wavelength range 500 – 580 nm,
• Maximum 15% blue light in the wavelength range of 435 – 495 nm.

According to experts, the combination of these colors can greatly meet the needs of your plants.

Furthermore, it is necessary to pay attention to the following factors: tank size, plant type, light characteristics, and Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR).

Whether the size of your tank is large or small, it has a pretty big impact on lighting, because if you don’t make a good choice, you run the risk that not all parts of the tank will be covered with enough light. Another thing you need to pay attention to is the plants you plan to grow because not all plants have the same light requirements. Furthermore, different LED lights have different powers and characteristics, which actually means that not all are equally strong to support the life of aquarium plants.

That would be it, now you know the answer to the question “can LED lights grow aquarium plants.”

To Conclude – Can LED Lights Grow Aquarium Plants?

Aquarium plants can grow unconditionally under LED lights, but it all depends on the intensity of the light. When choosing a light that will beautify your aquarium tank, be sure to pay attention to the two most important things, the tank’s depth and how well the light will spread across it.

If you provide your plants with the required amount of light, they will use it to perform the process of photosynthesis, and that’s actually all it takes to make your entire aquarium tank thrive.

We hope you find this article useful. If you have any questions, please let us know in the section below.

You might also be interested in Can I Use Grow Light For The Aquarium? A Short Guide To Quick Success

FAQs