Recommendation needed for 30cm lighting for heavily planted cube tank

**sqwerc** · 19th Jan 2013, 14:37

Hi everyone,

I did a search on the forums and most people talk of LED lighting for small tanks. I have just got a heavily planted 30cm cube tank and currently using a 2 clip on lights (one 15watt CF and one cheap LED light set) . Some of my plants like the hair grass are browning, thinking of getting a single good light to replace them both.

Plants include the following:-

Glosso,
japanese hair grass
spiky moss on driftwwod
dwaft lily
banana plant
Val contortionist
Nana 'petite'
Willow moss
US fisidden.

Any light recommendations for good growth? Currently using pressurized CO2 system and cooler fan. Water temp keeps around 26 - 27 degrees. Heading down to seaview or NA shortly recommendations are greatly welcomed!

**hobbit6003** · 19th Jan 2013, 15:34

Hi, you may want to look at mine here:

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...7-year-hiatus-)

This LED lamp has 3 bulbs of 3W each, and is very bright. It also has telescopic arms which you can adjust the height, as well as how much you want to extend the lamp. It is bright enough for most of the light demanding plants. As you can see from the pics in the thread, the harigrass is growing quite fast and has cover almost every corner of the tank after about 3-4 weeks of planting.

However, this is not cheap though. I bought it at Green Chapter.

**sqwerc** · 19th Jan 2013, 23:59

Thanks for the reply. I picked up a UP Aqua pro Z series-10. Got some pearling! Happy!!

**qngwn** · 20th Jan 2013, 22:34

any pictures of your up aqua pro z series, and the pearling?

**sqwerc** · 21st Jan 2013, 22:18

**qngwn** · 22nd Jan 2013, 11:49

Nice! You're using two lights cos the lights cannot reach the back?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**sqwerc** · 22nd Jan 2013, 12:11

I think if I place the light in the center it will be alright but I pushed it further to the front as I want the maximum light intensity for the carpeting plants. As a result the background gets shadowed so I placed a CF light there. Heard LED not as good for moss so hopefully it benefits the moss wall at the back

**inrewind** · 9th Apr 2013, 04:28

Just got one set for myself for my heavily planted tank. Any updates on your tank with this LED light?

**sqwerc** · 11th Apr 2013, 14:37

I actually found that with the up aqua pro z series, my glosso's still grew upwards rather than carpet. I have switched to a beamworks Evo 12. Getting a better carpeting effect now.