How to Pick the Right Fish Tank Lighting

Fluorescent fish tank lighting comes in a surprising variety of different sizes, shapes, efficiencies, brightnesses and spectra. Fish tanks use many different types of these lights. The most common is probably the standard fluorescent, but it may soon be overtaken by the compact fluorescent. There are also VHO (Very High Output) fluorescents, and T5 fluorescents. These are much brighter than standard fluorescents and are most commonly used in reef tanks and planted freshwater aquaria (Foster and Smith, Lighting Guide).

Standard fluorescents come in many different spectra. Some use a spectrum optimized for plant growth, and are sold as plant lights in pet stores and garden shops. These lights produce less intense light than metal halide, VHO, or T5 fluorescents, but the color spectrum produced is still designed to encourage healthy plant growth.

Compact fluorescents produce more light in a smaller space and using less electricity than standard fluorescent lights. They require different lighting fixtures from standard fluorescents. There is more than one pin arrangement among compact fluorescents, so be sure you get the right type for your lighting fixture. They also put out rather more heat than standard fluorescents.

Incandescent lighting is still sold in some pet stores. Incandescent lighting is inefficient with electricity and produces a lot of waste heat that can cause a tank to overheat during the summer. If you can possibly use anything else, do.

LED lighting is new on the fish tank scene. LED is short for light emitting diode. This technology is the most energy-efficient on the market, which means they don't get hot the way incandescents and to a lesser extent fluorescents do. So far I have only seen LED lights designed for very small tanks in aquarium stores. These lights are usually battery operated and are designed to sit on top of the tank.

On the Internet, there are LED lights intended for use as plant lights, for specialized marine applications, or for main lighting for a larger aquarium. These lights can be found here, but I have no idea how well they actually work. Given the efficiency of LEDs, this form of lighting will likely become much more common in the future, but as with any new technology the early versions sometimes have problems.

There are also other types of lighting sometimes used in fish tanks. Metal halide lighting is often used in marine fish tanks, especially living reef aquaria. These lights produce a large amount of light which is necessary to keep live corals healthy. They are expensive and so are not commonly used in applications where their high light output is not needed. They can be found at Marine Depot. In addition, they give off large amounts of heat which often makes cooling systems necessary and means that they may explode if water is splashed on them.

As you can see, there is a wide range of options in fish tank lighting. It may be confusing, but at least you have a good chance of finding something that works for you.

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