Lighting the Aquarium

As you probably have read before, lighting the aquarium is an important aspect for maintaining the environment in good conditions. But you should also know that the correct lighting for your aquarium is not necessarily the appropriate lighting for someone else’s aquarium.
You must be perfectly aware of the needed conditions for your live plants and species of fish. Different species need different or very different living conditions. It is true that most of them need bright light but it is not a general condition for all of them, on the contrary.

Photosynthesis is the natural process through which the plants are using light to transform CO2, eliminating the oxygen into the medium.
The oxygen is vital for life, for the fish in the tank, in this particular case. Therefore, a proper lighting is necessary for good living conditions in the aquarium’s water.
Plants that are not having enough, proper lighting are not going to offer enough oxygen, and they are going to suffer and die themselves.
Using one fluorescent tube is the easiest way of resolving an aquarium’s lighting, many times. This solution may be the easiest but for sure it is not the best because this fluorescent tube is not enough for most of the plants. Plants from different species are sensitive to different shortwaves from light.
The white light, as we know it, is made up of different wavelengths that have a correspondent to every color. The rainbow is the perfect way of understanding this phenomena, because there the sunlight is separated into the seven wavelengths, the seven known colors.
The nanometer (billionths of a meter) is the measure used for the wavelengths of the light. The colors of the objects are, in fact, determined by the type of wavelength they are reflecting.
There are plants and algae that love short wave light, as blue. Most of the plants love green light while aquatic plants are most likely to love red light (650-680nm). That’s why you should pay attention to the type of lighting you are using for the aquarium: it is essential for the plants’ living process. And the plants’ living process influences the whole environment and the health of the fish.

Plants are using just a part of the light they receive, preferring specific wavelengths that are passing easier into the water. It is good to be known that blue light enhances algae’s growth as well.
This is why we must choose a balance of red and blue light. The plants with light green leaves are going to prefer bright light in order to balance the lack of chlorophyll. The dark green leaves are going to grow better in low light conditions. The plants with red leaves are growing better under bright light. The natural aquatic plants are growing better with natural adequate light if it is possible.

Read about the species of plants that you have chosen to plant into your aquarium, but also about the species of fish living in the created environment.
Create a balance between them, so that their living conditions to be similar, in order for all wanted living forms in the aquarium to be stimulated.
Otherwise, some of the plants and fish are going to live and grow happily and others are going to die, creating a strange unhealthy view. Therefore, use correct types of lighting, for specific plants.