Aquarium Lighting

Properly lighting your aquarium is of vital importance and serves several purposes. We might think of fish tank lighting as simply a way for us to bring out the beautiful colouration of our fishes and make it easier for us to enjoy them. Lighting is however very important for the tank inhabitants as well. Many fish species are affected by light, and will for instance appreciate if you arrange dusk and dawn periods for them since this might be when they are as most active in the wild. Plants are even more dependant on light than the fish, since plants need the light in order to perform photosynthesis. Without proper fish tank lighting, they will starve which can cause them to stop growing or even kill them. If your keep invertebrates like corals, sufficient lighting becomes even more important since corals require huge amounts of intense lighting to survive.

Incandescent bulbs are the mildest form of fish tank lighting, and should not be used as the only light source for more demanding aquariums. Today, incandescent bulbs are often used as extra lights in aquariums that need some additional decorative lighting.

When the fluorescent light was introduced to the hobby, they made it possible to keep much more demanding plant species than before since the fluorescent light is much more powerful than the incandescent. Even if you keep sturdy plants that survive without fluorescent lights in the aquarium, you will usually notice a rapid increase of the growth rate if your provide them with fluorescent lights.

Metal halide lamps are stronger than fluorescent lights, and are necessary if your want to keep extremely light demanding species such as certain types of corals. Metal halide lamps are therefore commonly found in marine reef aquariums. Metal halide lamps are also used as fish tank lighting for very deep aquariums, since weaker lights can be incapable of penetrating the water all the way down to the bottom of a deep aquarium.