We have reviewed the Best LED aquarium lights for plants. If you are in a hurry, the table below gives a quick snapshot of the top ones.
Table of Contents
If you have a planted aquarium, then it is more than necessary to have a fair amount of lightning inside of it.
Without the proper amount of light, the plants will not get the energy needed to perform photosynthesis.
They will not grow in a dark environment. Choosing the right LED light for the plants in your aquarium is no easy task.
In this article, you will come to know about the things that you should look for while buying aquarium lights.
Towards the end, we will discuss some of the frequently asked questions related to the best LED aquarium lights for plants.
Our Top Choice Finnex Planted KLC Aquarium LED Light
The Finnex Planted+ 24/7 LED KLC Aquarium LED Light, Controllable Full Spectrum Fish Tank Light, 30 Inches is our top choice for “best LED aquarium lights for plants” because:
- Sleek designed built-in sensors and water-resistant LED coating.
- Allows a hand free simulated sunrise and sunset effect.
- Color control mode allows saving colors and intensities with a 24/7 program.
- Four memory slots in which the user can customize and save countless color combinations.
- The legs feature screws that are capable of mounting rimless aquariums.
- Water-resistant splash guard to give better protection.
- Four customizable color channels and weather modes.
Best LED Aquarium For Plants
#1 Finnex Planted KLC Aquarium LED Light
Finnex Planted KLC Aquarium LED Light is our top choice for the best-LED aquariums for plants. The Finnex planted aquarium light is a full spectrum LED light that allows you to plug in various colors for a real day cycle effect. Users can change the colors as per their choice.
Its best features are
Features and Benefits
- 24/7 Feature: The 24/7 feature of this light starts with cool lit dawn to a warm sunrise morning followed by intense color blazing noon to a red sun drowned sunset and with a starry blue moonlight to give beautiful and charming effects to the aquarium. Moreover, it allows you to customize and add the colors as per your choice.
- LED Wireless Sensors: the built-in wireless sensors creates a more signal sensitive and streamlined look. It also features a 24/7 color control mode that allows users to save colors and intensities with the 24/7 program and customize the color of sunrise and sunset with ease.
- Remote: The LED fixture is equipped with a remote that allows day elements like a thunderstorm, cloud days, sunny days, and moonlight to be activated with a button click. The IR controlled remote have four memory slots in which you can easily customize and save countless color combinations and lighting intensities of your choice.
- Ideal: The legs feature screws that are designed to fit rimless aquariums, and for the larger rimmed aquariums, it also features a removable inner portion to accommodate the width. The water-resistant splash guard gives excellent protection and ensures a longer life of this LED light.
Why should you buy it?
The 24/7 LED light is an ideal choice for your plant aquarium as it offers a full spectrum and beautiful effects to your aquarium. It features a 24/7 color control mode to save colors and intensities as per your choice.
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#2 NICREW ClassicLED Planted Aquarium Lights
This aquarium light is our second choice for the best aquarium lights for plants. The brilliant lighting effects combined with white and blue LEDs, illuminate water, plant, and fishes. It features day and night time lighting modes for an attractive view.
Features and Benefits
- Modes: the LED light using two lighting modes that create a spectacular atmosphere and create beautiful lighting. The white and blue LED’s for daylight and blue LED only for night light are created especially for freshwater aquariums. These bright white LEDs and blue LED’s come together in a sleek fixture that gives a freshwater aquatic environment and illuminate water, plant, and fishes.
- Adjustable Mounting Legs: it has adjustable mounting legs that allow good flexibility to fit the length of any aquariums. You can also add multiple fixtures with ease. These adjustable metal brackets can fit the aquarium tank from 18 inches to 24 inches without making any further adjustments.
- Good Light: The NICREW LED strip lights to provide energy-efficient lights with the lunar and daylight LED. The super-bright, energy-efficient, and durable LED lighting promotes the healthy and vibrant growth of fishes and plants and produces a brilliant light with a wide spectrum that can enlighten the scope of your aquarium.
- Ideal choice: the aquarium is an ideal choice for any fish room. It is compatible with a single channel timer and a single channel timer pro to turn the light on to simulate sunrise and to dim the light to simulate sunset.
Why should you buy it?
The LED light can lighten up the atmosphere of any aquarium with white and blue lighting modes. The super-bright, energy-efficient, and durable LED lighting promotes the healthy and vibrant growth of fishes and plants and gives an amazing spectrum to give a freshwater aquatic environment and illuminate water, plant, and fishes.
#3 Hygger Full Spectrum Aquarium Light
The light simulates a natural light that is good for plant growth. It features three lighting modes and five levels of light brightness adjustable that make your aquarium look more attractive and crystal clear.
Features and Benefits
- Lighting Color Modes: The aquarium lighting has three lighting modes: white, blue+white+red LED’s, red+blue that is very easy to shift the colors by pressing the second button 1 to 3 times on the controller. You can change into three different and wonderful views. It gives more natural lighting to your plants and aquarium and helps in their growth.
- 5 Level of Brightness: This aquarium LED light has five levels of light brightness. You can set the light brightness from 100% to 10% according to your preference or the light needs of the plants. Moreover, on the external controller, you can set the lighting time to 3, 6, and 12 hrs by pressing the third button 1 to 3 times as per your convenience.
- Alloy Metal Shell: the whole light shell of this aquarium light is aluminum alloy metal that gives a nice tactile feel and helps in fast heat dissipation. The low profile mounting bracket fish tank light can last up to 20,000 hours of lighting.
- Mounting Brackets: it comes with two pairs of mounting brackets, one pair is metal brackets, and the other one is plastic brackets. The metal brackets can extend up to five inches, and the mounting brackets make the light spread through the whole tank.
Why should you buy it?
The aquarium light gives a natural and crystal clear light to your aquarium as it has three lighting modes and five levels of brightness that you can adjust as per your choice. It further helps to create a wide spectrum to give a beautiful and bright view.
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#4 MingDak LED Plant Light
The LED light produces a beautiful halo effect on the water, and your fishes and plants will come out to Life with these lights. The 6500K natural light with white, blue, and red diodes are helpful in the growth of plants.
Features and Benefits
- Full Spectrum: the LED light offers a wide spectrum with its 6500K natural light with the delicate white, blue and red diodes that has a wavelength that is helpful in the growth of plants. It also offers 700 lumens, which are more bright than any other classical light.
- 3 Light Modes: the light has three modes; white+blue+red LED’s, white+red LED’s, and only blue LED’s that not only create a light that mimics the natural underwater effect of sunlight but also gives a wonderful night light effect. Moreover, you can adjust the brightness from 100 percent to 10 percent with the help of this light so that you don’t have any light issues.
- Multifunctional: the light is ultra-slim and sturdy and is different from the classic light as it has only 0.43 inches of thinness. This thin and sturdy light gives more fast heating dissipation. Moreover, you can set the lighting time to 3, 6, or 12 hrs so that it can get started at the same time every day.
- Extendable Brackets: it has adjustable housing and adjustable mounting legs that can fit both rimless and framed aquarium tanks from 12 inches to 18 inches. The aluminum housing is slim and sturdy and makes it suitable for most of the tanks.
Why should you buy it?
Want an LED light for plants that give more natural lighting? Then this one will be your perfect choice. It has three lighting modes and offers a wide spectrum with its 6500K natural light to make your aquarium look more beautiful.
#5 Aquatic Life LED Aquarium Light Fixture
Aquatic Life LEd aquarium light fixture is perfect for both experts as well as novice hobbyists. The best aspect of this fixture is its advanced features, which are extremely easy to use. The fixture offers different color combinations that can easily replicate sunrise, daylights, as well as moonlight.
Features and Benefits
- Easy to program: You can easily program the light as per your requirements.
- Perfect timer: It comes with a three-channel timer along with timer backups.
- Adjustable width frame: Its adjustable width frame can easily mount to offer support to enable the positioning of the fixture in any type of tank size.
Why should you buy it?
It is easy to program to get enough lights for your plants. Also, it comes with a three-channel timer with timer backups. Its advanced features are easy to use.
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Buyer’s Guide: Best LED Aquarium Lights For Plants
The first question that comes to your mind whenever you are going to choose the lightning for the plants in your aquarium will be, “What type of light should I get for a planted aquarium?” There are three parameters to decide on this aspect.
Intensity of light
The intensity of the light solely depends on the type of plants that you want to grow in your aquarium.
Lights with low intensity are enough to grow ferns and cryptocorynes. At the same time, stem plants can grow in medium intensity lights.
No need to say that high-intensity lights can help almost every plant to thrive. You should use LEDs over other lights because of the high-intensity lights they produce with lower power consumption.
Color Spectrum
Color spectrum doesn’t matter as the aquarium plants can thrive under a wide range of the color spectrum that is measured in the Kelvin unit. It depends completely on the owner of the aquarium.
You will not want your aquarium lights to be too blue or too red. You can choose any colored LED light with any color spectrum for your aquarium.
Just make sure it is not too blue as it is harmful to the plants. To stimulate the natural sunlight, you can use a white LED light having a rating of between 6500 to 7000 K.
Area Covered by Light
How far the light spreads or disperses is the final thing that you should look for before buying a light for your aquarium. A suitable aquarium LED light should have a 1-foot light spread directly below them. Make sure that the light that you are going to buy covers the mentioned area at least.
Frequently asked questions: Best LED Aquarium Lights For Plants.
Q. Which light is best for plants in an aquarium?
Ans. You can choose any brand of light and also any type of light. Just make sure that it offers the amount of light intensity that the plants are required to grow. But LED lights are highly recommended as they consume less power and give high-intensity light than any others.
Q. Do LED aquarium lights cause more algae?
Ans. The answer to this question is ‘No’. The LED lights do not cause more algae formation than fluorescent bulbs. Some people also believe that LED lights reduce the growth of algae inside the aquarium.
Conclusion
LED lights are better than fluorescent lights when it comes to selecting lights for aquarium plants as they consume less electricity than fluorescent lights, and also, you can control the intensity of the LED light as different plants require different light intensity.
Let us hope that this article can help you in finding the best LED aquarium lights for plants.
In our opinion, the Finnex Planted+ 24/7 LED KLC Aquarium LED Light, Controllable Full Spectrum Fish Tank Light, 30 Inches is the best choice among the various options that we have considered because of its sleek designed built-in sensors, and water-resistant LED coating makes it perfect for your plants in the aquarium.
The NICREW ClassicLED Plus Planted Aquarium Light, Full Spectrum LED Fish Tank Light for Freshwater Plants, 30 to 36 Inch, 21 Watts is our next best choice because its LED light uses two lighting modes that create a spectacular atmosphere and create beautiful lighting.
If you are looking for a value for money option, you can also consider the Hygger 14W Full Spectrum Aquarium Light with Aluminum Alloy Shell Extendable Brackets, White Blue Red LEDs, External Controller, for Freshwater Fish Tank (18-24 inch), which offers great value and features at a very reasonable price point.