Lighting/substrate question

[Nathanal6]

Hello, everyone, I was have been looking around, and thought I would ask what kind of light setup u folks use, and if anyone has uses LED lights as there source of UV? Another question too is I noticed in pictures that there is a lot of mixing of sand/or dirt with rocks, is that good for plants?

 

[Jennewt]

Some folks have used LED lights for aquariums, but I've heard mixed results on whether they work for live plants. I have never heard of anyone using LED as a UV source. What species are you working with? They probably don't need need UV.

Regarding your question about mixing dirt with rocks... are you asking about an aquatic setup or terrestrial? It would help if you explained a little more about what you are setting up.

 

[ahritchie]

I have a high output LED light in one of my planted tanks and the plants are doing great; all low light plants however (java moss, java fern, elodea, marimo ball, ect.) It's a much prettier lighting setup than a standard florescent fixture; much brighter and gives an awesome "shimmering" effect on the water. It also has a lunar mode with blue/actinic LEDS...VERY cool for my GFP axolotls, makes them glow like they are from Fukshima! A bit expensive but you NEVER have to replace bulbs! I have the plants either attached to driftwood or secured with big rocks around the roots in the sand and they do great. I say go for the LED light and don't look back unless you have plants that need high lighting requirements (most caudates are not going to appreciate TOO bright a light). Hope this helps.

 

[Yahilles]

If i understood correctly...
LED lighting is very efficient IF you use enough powerful diodes, like each one diode of 1W power, and several diodes like that per tank. Such lighting is pretty expensive to get but once built, is cheap in exploatation and long-living.
If you want to use LED in form of threaded bulbs, you're likely to see your plants in bad condition because that LED is too weak for the plants, still being expensive.

If you meant using soil as aquarium substrate, it's a wonderful idea but it's not based on mixing the soil with gravel, but putting the soil layer UNDER the gravel layer.
If you're interested in that way of maintaining the tank that way (i appreciate it very much myself and use this method successfully for 3 years now), you should seek info about "walstad natural planted tanks".

 

[Nathanal6]

thanks for all the great responses, I think I will be going with LED then, I just wanted to see if anyone is using them successfully, because they seem like I would be worth it.

The gravel dirt question comes from looking a tank set ups on here and I noticed
how the tanks looks, but I am guessing the Idea was what was mentioned about dirt on the bottom and gravel on top. Presently I am preparing for my first newt (hoping to find one on here) species unknown at this time. I like to do things as right as possible from the beginning.

thanks everyone for imparting some first hand knowledge my way.