# Suitable light for 3 gallon highly planted tank



## KORHC (Jan 24, 2015)

Currently i'm using this light for my planted 3 gallon tank for the past 4 months. 
http://www.amazon.com/Finnex-StingR...a_nav_t_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1M766CY9GRA5RCG8AWMW

My question is whether that light would be enough for my plants. I have java ferns, anubias, mossballs, red root floaters, ludwigia repens and rotala macrandra. (red plants)
I plan on installing a DIY co2 injector and recently changed the gravel to ADA amazonia. I dose daily seachem iron, flourish comp twice a weeks and root tabs.


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## jadaBlu (Feb 14, 2013)

Since it's a 3 gallon you might go with a desk lamp and a CFL bulb. I have one similar to that Finnex it supports Java and anubias.


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## dannifluff (Jul 5, 2015)

Hm, I'm not experienced with that light but it has 7000k daylight spectrum lighting so I wouldn't have thought it would be too bad. The rotala macrandra is notoriously difficult though. It will definitely benefit from the CO2. I imagine to bring out the full vibrancy of this plant you may need slightly stronger lighting, but I wouldn't have thought it would die on you. It may just look on the brown side rather than the gorgeous red it has the potential for. You're dosing iron, which is good. It may be worth looking at macro dosing as well. I have some red plants (ludwigia arcuata and rotala indica) under 11w T5 tubes of 7100k and 8000k respectively, and found that CO2 diffusion made a big difference to how strong and healthy the leaves look. I dose a combined macro designed for red plants but I don't actually dose iron other than what is in my Flourish Comprehensive, and the colours are strong. They would perhaps be stronger though if I dosed extra iron but since I don't have the tests for this I didn't want to over-fertilise. If you're having any trouble with the red plants, try floating them on the surface to get the best of the light until they're really strong, since your java ferns and anubias will be fine with less light.


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