However, you’ll need to ensure that the plants receive adequate light if they’re to remain healthy and thrive. Many aquatic plants that are popular with hobbyists are very easy to keep and grow. More challenging plant species need more red and blue light to thrive. So, to summarize, aquarium lights produce a bright white through to blue light that’s designed to show off your fishes’ colors, as well as provide adequate lighting for easy to care for aquatic plants.

Plant lights generally have a lot of reds and blues, which are most effective for the process of photosynthesis. The spectral output defines lights that are designed for growing terrestrial plants. Grow lights and lights specifically designed for use in tanks containing aquatic plants are generally given a Kelvin rating of between 4,700k to around 6,700k and emit a pinkish-white light, which is the optimum range for photosynthesis and pretty much equates to natural daylight.Īquarium lights for reef and marine tanks are generally more toward the 8,000k range and above, producing a bright white through to blue spectrum. Basically, the higher the Kelvin rating (k) of a light bulb, the whiter the light produced by that bulb will be. In plain English, Kelvin is used in lighting to measure the color temperature of a light bulb. “ … the SI base unit of thermodynamic temperature, equal in magnitude to the degree Celsius.” The primary difference between aquarium and grow lights is in the Kelvin rating. Aquarium lights usually have more green and less red and blue, which gives the light they produce a more appealing look, although it’s not ideal for plants, which need more red and blue light for healthy growth. The difference between a plant grow light for growing terrestrial plants, and an aquarium light is generally the unit’s spectral output.

What’s the difference between a grow light and an aquarium light?

Black light fish tank plants