Habitat - Indoor :: Care for aquatic plants

[josephkr]

I have an aquarium to breed feeder guppies and there are several aquatic plants in it. Do they need uv light to be healthy? I have the tank in my bedroom and lights are off pretty much all day, so when I get home from work I try to leave my bedroom lights on until I go to bed around 10 or midnight. What else, by way of lighting, do they need?

[VeipaCray]

There's entire forums dedicated to aquatic plants and planted tanks. Generally speaking, plants need light, fertilizer and CO2.

The type of fertilizer needed various by plants can depend on your water chemistry. Some plants are root feeders only, some only absorb nutrients from the water column and some do both.

Plant's do not need UVB light that the turtles need. They do need light in the 5000-10K kelvin range.

Plants also need CO2. The amount of CO2 needed by the plants is a balance between the lighting and fertilizer (nutrients) available to them.

With low lighting, and fertilizer only from fish waste there's usually enough dissolved CO2 in the water for plants to survive.
However, if you want the plants to thrive and grow rapidly... that's another story.


Here's a current shot of my planted in-wall 75.