Are plants picky about what light?

[Nutty]

Hello all, a bit of a funny question but wondering if the answer may solve a tank trouble!

Are plants picky and only use "white/yellowy" light or do they not care as long as its photons being fired at them? (in this case a lovely blue).

my tank is one of those fishbox/fishpod 40's which has lights and reflectors in its hood, it comes supplied with:
1 x 15W Interpet Brightday White
Interpet 15W Interpet Brightday White: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies
and
1 x 15w Cool Blue moon
Interpet 15W Interpet Cool Blue Moon: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

After reading plenty of confusing tales on the web, i thought i'd ask here for some properly educated knowledge!

Currently i run both as i like the brighter whiter light with the combo, but that would be 30 w on a relatively small tank and i'm only wanting a low tech!

If the plants aren't picky should i drop to one and should hopefully lower demand?

Cheers,
Nutty

 

[Michael W]

I'm sure a more knowledgeable member will correct me if I'm wrong but I do not think plants care much about the Kelvin as they will adapt. As long as its light plants will use it for photosynthesis. As for low tech, feel free to use a much much dimmer light. Too much light in a low tech tank will drive you plants crazy for nutrients and CO2 meaning poor growth also algae etc. Carbon grows plants not light, light is basically a catalyst in speeding up photosynthesis resulting in the need of more nutrients and CO2.

Michael.

 

[ceg4048]

I agree with Michael. For our purposes the plants do not care what color the bulbs are. What they care about is how many photons are being absorbed, and intensity is a measure of the the number of photons. It's a good plan to remove a bulb if the total is too high, but get any color that pleases you. It's not even necessary to buy a bulb that is marketed for aquarium plants. Just go to B&Q where they may have some bulbs illuminated on display and might be even cheaper than Amazon.

More data => Cheap T5 at my local hardware. | UK Aquatic Plant Society

Cheers,