20 Best Aquarium Lights For Planted Tanks (2022 Updated)

The colour of the light really enhances the reds and greens of the plants. They look much better than with any nano LED that I have used before. It also has more PAR when used at 100% power. There is a dimmer built-in so there is no need to buy a separate one.

It’s very convenient that you can adjust the height of the light and also swing it to the side for maintenance. However, if you set the light to a high position, light will spill more into the surrounding area.

Very recently, a newer version of this light available which is also controllable via a phone app.

I ordered the ONF Flat Nano at GreenAqua because i can’t in Germany (color silver). I really like the LED and it was a very fast delivery from Hungary to Germany. Only few days. Thank you GreenAqua!

Nice light , but am having troubles keeping it level. The single o ring doesn’t do the job properly. It has a tilt when mounted straight and flat on my aquarium edge .

I’m not really a fan of blue LED lights. I wear glasses and sometimes the light affects my eyes. But I saw these online with white LED and blue LED on the same strip so I ordered them and they just came.

My tank was just cleaned (perfect timing ). Long story short. I LOVE these lights. My fish LOVE these lights. Now I need to get more for my other tanks. More for bigger tanks.

My husband and I chose to have a mixed tank, including glofish. We have red, green, orange, and purple glofish. Mixed with them, we have swordtails, zebra danios, a cory catfish, and a rubberlip pleco.

We have no desire for everything to glow so we didn’t use glofish plants or gravel. Instead we have white sand substrate and regular plastic plants. We are very happy with this new light.

It works like a regular light. It provides a little bit of UV, but extremely limited. I was using a cheap low power UV flashlight to compare. Flashlight works better, difference is huge! You can use it as a regular light though.

As a regular one it is really great! But again I’m not sure about spectrum. Reasonable retail price would be $25 – $35.

We’ve had this light since we picked our tank up from someone in the Denver area on Craigslist 5+ years ago. They had the tank for about 9 months before they sold it to us. This thing has been outstanding.

I want the controller but wish it had a smart controller that I could manage from my phone like my inkbird heater controller. I’d like to know if the light doesn’t come on when it’s supposed to.

I purchased two A160WE LED’s for my 120 gallon salt water aquarium. I must say these lights are super light in weight, and they save a lot of space above the aquarium. As far as the performance goes, I have not had an LED setup with such a crystal clear look of night and day; the Kessil A160WE penetrates the bottom of my 120 Gallon aquarium so effectively, that the corals I have on the sand bed are starting to show more growth and deeper colors.

My corals and fish are loving it!! P. S. I would recommend having 3 of these smaller A160WE Kessils for a 100-120 gallon salt water aquarium. Thank you!! Best Louie Murillo Oct 17 2015.

I have had this lamp over my 25 gallon Innovative Marine Fusion Lagoon for over a year and am still totally satisfied with the results. Pinks, oranges, reds, and greens really pop under this light and the blue setting has visibly improved coral growth overall.

I currently host 2 maxima clams, a rose bubble tip anemone, several torches, frogspawn, acan, zoas, and hammers. All are thriving! Kessil has always made reliable LEDs. I would definitely buy again.

For the money, it’s a good product. The lights are bright, but plan on anything that is not directly underneath the light to be in the shade. As with most LED reef lights, the spread is narrow. The remote is easy to use and program.

I also have a set of Popbloom reef lights that are a couple of years old that came with wired controllers. Compared to those, this remote control is a bit less customizable, but still works good. The one thing I miss is controlling the percentage of each spectrum.

You can control each spectrum on the remote, but you just have to eyeball the levels. The arm bracket is sturdy and this package came with the arm. Looking online, I can’t believe they charge almost $50 for this piece.

It’s sturdy, but not platinum! As far as the tank life, my pulsing Xenias, frogspawns, mushrooms, kenya trees, and even aiptasias seem happy. My red gracilaria has shown improved growth.

The controller and expand-ability of this light makes it a great budget buy. We really like the lunar cycle feature of this, it is something we have always wanted and could not find in main brand features.

Some others have said that the lunar is too dim or green. It only used the center 3 leds. We think it is perfect on our 20g High tank using 1 of these lights. We expect to get more of these for our other tanks.

Some of the other reviews talk about wifi and able to control with a smart phone. This is not a feature of this and they expect to have a new controller for that in the future which we will likely invest in.

Another warning is that the cord for the controller is about 12 inches. I would suggest picking up the extension. Also if you are purchasing multiple to chain together make sure you buy a standard one with a “Mid” model which has controller connections on each side.

Also there are warnings on all of the instructions that the controller must be plugged into the light prior to the light receiving power, otherwise “damage will occur. ” Other systems use the controller for power input to correct this issue.

This is not the case with this, so be warned.

Very Nice Light! After almost 5 months i spread the result, the light really did not fail and many are surprised by the color and growth of corals, given the simplicity of the system, there is no balling, the light is used by about 70 percent, 3 channels out of 4, white increased recently because he planted calendrum about a month ago, the growth of about half a hundred a month, some branches under a centimeter, Moneti moneti in 1 ruble grew to 6×6, if not constantly turning it sinelapy would grow better.

Growth would be stronger, but nf on zeros hanging all the time, raise the edge hard, i will buy fish. I plan to expand soon i will order the 2nd bar. Dimensions of the operating system 56d 32 w 36 v, without sampa.

Reckomenduyu light for acquisition, the result as was almost the same as under top assemblies, only need to look the size of the system and choose the desired number of planks. Everything i can not show, unfortunately, the color as i could pulled out of the camera, but everything is much saturated, the activation gives even greenish, like a briarium).

I like the form factor. Very sleek, compact and solid. I like the connectivity and ease of use with the app. Its almost plug and play. I like the full spectrum leds. It can pearl your plants if added with another light.

I dont like the weak intensity of the light. Even at max, the aquarium looks like a blackwater setup. It will need another light to complete it. Almost perfect but disappointing.

I’m slowly collecting equipment for a 75gal setup, so I can’t attest to it’s effectiveness yet, but so far I am super excited to use this light! It is WAY brighter than the Finnex 24/7CC on my 25gal tank.

It is a super sleek, classy looking fixture. I also love the customization options available on the Fluval App. The fixture itself sits right on the rim of the tank- no brackets were included to hang it or raise it in any way (from what I could tell anyway).

However this shouldn’t be an issue beyond aesthetic preferences, because you can customize the brightness to make up for distance. Shipping from Petco was extremely fast. The shipping box was pretty beat up, so I took the light out right away and checked it over for any cracks or damage.

The light itself is packaged pretty well with cardboard braces- it was fine. I turned it on and changed the settings to make sure all the colors and nodes were working properly- so far so good. I keep med/high tech, heavily planted tanks.

If you’re like me and want a light that is easy to work with, has preset settings, and does a good job, I would highly recommend looking into this fixture. There are others that do a good job too- I’ve had my 24in Finnex 24/7CC for probably 8 years now and it’s a great light too.

I can’t get the colors out of my plants that I would like or lush “carpets” though, so wanted something with more intensity this time around.

Shipping was fast and with a 20% off coupon, the cost was comparable to the Finnex planted plus 24/7. This light is supposedly waterproof with a much better warranty so that seemed like a good deal! I’m still waiting for several components to arrive from other online retailers in order to get my tank up and running so I cannot comment on plant growth.

The light spread seems quite narrow as it sits so close to the tank but my husband loves the low profile of the light, itself. Regarding the customizability, there is no limit to how you set the lighting schedules with the “pro mode.

” Of course there also isnt any guidance as to what types of changes may effect plant/algea growth. In addition, the color saturation is much more “sterile” and lacks the warmth of the Finnex planted + 24/7.

I have tweaked the Fluval to try an mimic the Finnex and it just doesnt compare in its ability to pull out red and just give the tank those warm glows at “sunrise” and “sunset. ” So, with the exact same price point.

I would say you are trading off the beautiful colors achieved with the Finnex for the warranty and App associated with the Fluval.

I have this on an Aqueon 5. 5 gallon standard tank. This light looks good, raised high enough it doesn’t need to be removed when cleaning (making it easy to see what I am doing). Makes the tank look good and the plants are thriving.

The soft touch switch is nice as it doesn’t require any pressure, just a soft touch. I have the light on a timer and it comes back on with the full light every day. Not a problem with the light, but I do find that on this small tank the black hinge of the glass cover creates quite a shadow as it centers right below the light, something to be considered when choosing a cover.

Great light. I have purchased a few 24/7 lights from Finnex over the years and have never been disappointed. Each new model gets better and better. Very bright, very customizable and very sleek look.

High quality. If I want a quality light for a new tank setup Finnex is my go to. The Nicrew imitation 24/7 lights are ok but if you want a really nice light you wont be disappointed with go with the Finnex.

The Finnex is much brighter and customizable. Has better build quality and made of metal. I use both brands and you can definitely notice the difference. I use the Finnex for more “show tanks” with higher tech setup.

Also if the tank is deeper the Finnex will be much better since its brighter. The Nicrew I use for shallower tanks or tanks that are not as fancy. The Nicrew is plenty bright for 12 inch tanks but on an 18 inch tank it is not quite bright enough for me.

Very pleased with these lights. Perfect for my freshwater aquaria. Like the built in natural 24 hour cycle and ability to program. Was a little tricky initially doing my own programming (needed to read the instructions a bit more carefully).

Seems to be quality material. Slightly clunky support legs. Have purchased 7 of these lights (30 in and 48 in) and pleased with all. Not cheap but reasonably priced compared to other options. Have relatively extension experience with multiple other brands and types (LED, CF, fluoro) of lights; these are my favorites so far.

one of the best lights you can get for a 29 gallon. i honestly dont even know how this is avaliable through the walmart app. its a very high end, name brand light. it was shipped by DropAir, and dispite high ordering traffic, my light arrived 14 days early.

couldnt be happier. save the money folks. this light is worth it, especially if you want medium/ high light plants. amazing product through and through.

Great light. Only thing I don’t like about it compared to other LED light bars on my other aquariums is the wobbly metal arms that are supposed to hold it on the top of the tank. Even a slight brush across it and it slips and falls off the curved edge.

With my other tanks I have other brands of LED light bars that have a solid plastic piece that completely and securely sets across the top of my tank. However, for the price savings on this version is will certainly do in a pinch.

This aquarium light arrived quickly, and works perfectly. The light is bright, and my plants are happy. I am using it on a 29 gal tank and have crypts and anubias in the tank. I have the timer set to turn the light on 6 hours a day.

I’m really enjoying the LED enhanced lighting effects. Watching the beauty of the fish swimming, along with this light effects bar, is truly stress relieving. I also like the option of the brighter multi lit function, or the deeper blue for night lighting.

I bought this as I’d set up planted bioactive filters above my tanks. I needed waterproof low energy lighting because of the water pouring out of the filtration. Prior to getting these, I had normal lights over the tanks but without aquarium lids, there was a risk of the lights falling into the water or being splashed by the fall out.

I am very impressed with the amount of light these emit. It’s a nice clear light too showing off the markings and colours of the tank inmates. By attacking it to the front top of each tank, it allows for some shadowy corners behind the plants at the back corners, thus giving it a more natural look which some of the shyer fish seem to enjoy.

I bought a blue and white light for the axolotl tank and again attached to the front top of their tank. The light is less bright than in the main tropical fish tank and since Axolotls don’t like bright lighting, this has been a great success.

In all, I find these lights to be very effective, a good price and also reducing my electricity consumption which, because I have several tanks, vivariums and terrariums, is higher than most hoiuseholds.

Received this item, and was pleasantly surprised by the construction. The cord has a great length with a on/off switch. The tube that the LEDs reside in is made of glass, and the LEDs are bright. I do not have this installed under water, so I cannot rate that aspect.

I have this mounted in my wooden canopy. I’m very happy with this product.

A smallish convenient light for providing night viewing on an aquarium. This is not actinic light, which after some research I found out is closer to uv light, however many aquarists feel actinic light is too bright for all night.

This is a good choice, the cord is long and the light is quite versatile in use possibilities. Your animals still will fluoresce a bit using this.

Good quality and looks good

Correct

Excellent!

Zilla makes the best screen lids on the market, but they could be better. They’re so flimsy, six of the eight I ordered came in considerably warped/bent. Yes, I could “bend them back” (somewhat), but until you try you won’t understand that they DON’T just go back to their original shape.

Because I am keeping snakes with these lids, it DOES matter. Also, PETCO doesn’t seem to carry the Zilla clips that are perfect for these lids any longer, instead carrying their “imagitarium” brand which are absolutely awful and for me, worthless.

I know COVID, inflation, supply-chain issues etc. are making everything wonky right now so corners sometimes need to be cut, but I’d have been willing to pay a little more to be able to buy the proper clips from the same seller and NOT have most of the lids come in warped.

Bought this for someone in college to use next to his laptop on his desk and also in his car when driving the several hours to get home for visits. Am a bit disappointed with packaging. Makes it look like a cheap item pulled off a hook in an ordinary store.

This was meant to be his most expensive gift out of several items and it looks the cheapest. That makes it hard because the item for his sibling now looks 3 to 4 times more expensive when it was actually about $10 less.

With them being 18 and 20 we try to spend close to the same amount and look for unique items for each so that they don’t actually get the same. The spiderpodium looks great and I’m sure will be good but it won’t have quite the impact I had hoped for.

As grandparents we struggle with technology and hoped this would impress him just a tad! The other reviews are what made me choose this model so I don’t doubt its construction or ability to do what is expected.

Just wish it had been better packaged-and that is on me.

Excellent light for the price. Gives you the option of daylight or at the flick of a switch a blue ‘moonlight’. I now have three of these units. they are lightweight, compact and look good. The only thing a potential buyer need be aware of is that it is designed to fit above a glass or perspex cover or condensation tray, if you try using it over an open tank you are inviting trouble; it does not take kindly to being splashed with water.

Gotta love the LED technology, the touch button is a nice feature that responds every time quickly. Just hope that won’t be the first thing to go as sometimes touch features and water don’t mix well.

I’m hopeful that they took this into account and it will last a while, as waterproofing technology has come a long way. I’m sure the led bulbs themselves will last for 10s of thousands of hours or so.

Will update if anything comes up short on this product but I would recommend this as a solid tank for lighting up your tank with white/blue led wavelengths. Waiting on a new 20 gal tank but uploading a pocture of the light setup on some germinating plants in the meantime.

I love this product because of the different light settings. I usually leave the blue spectrum setting because it gives it a nice deep sea kind of look. Every time people see the Fishtank they tell me how beautiful it looks.

The only con I would say is that it is a little pricey compared to some other lights I have used in the past. Another thing I love about it is that it is easily adjusted to move where you want it. .

I love this light! It is a major upgrade from my past light. I love the modern look this light has. I also love that the on and off of this light is touch; it is so much more convenient than having to go behind the tank to use the on and off button in the back near the outlet.

It is extremely easy and quick it set up. I’m so glad I got this light! I recommend.

Just received my AquaBasik in record time. It’s working beautifully in my 55 gallon tank. I especially like the remote control & all of the features. The LED lights really enhance the fish colors & decorations.

I use this light on my 40 gallon tall freshwater planted tank, and I have amazing growth from all of my plants. I have several swords, crypts, bacopa, hygrophilia, and jungle val as of right now. So, nothing that has high light demands, but it is a very deep tank, and I find it impressive that this light supports plant growth from such a distance.

I actually had to pull out a madagascar lace plant and aponogeton ulvaceus after those two had such amazing growth that they were blocking out all of my shorter plants from the light and taking over the tank.

I use a planted aquarium substrate but no CO2.

I have had this hood for four years and am replacing it now. I added the color max bulb with red and white which does give a lovely rich color in the tank, until recently when the light is mostly giving off red.

Maybe the bulbs wear out after 4 years of daily use. Oddly, only one strip light at a time has ever worked in mine even though both are plugged in. I thought it was poor design that the switch doesn’t allow changing between the lamps but now I realize that one of my plugs has never worked.

I see in this description that both strips should work at the same time. So currently, I lift the light hood and swap the plugs to connect the color I want. It would be better to have a 4-way switch with the option to turn on one or the other or both or none.

Especially for this price. I never use the glow light although it looks nice. Maybe that could be on its own switch. The hinges on the front flap broke a year or so ago during a too-aggressive scrubbing in the sink.

The lid still props up on where the hinges were and stays open for feeding. It does prevent evaporation very well. I bought this at a local family-owned fish store but this is the same product.

If you need a cover and light for your aquarium, this one isn’t bad. If you have live plants, I would recommend buying a glass top and a separate light. Fits my 20 gallon long Aqueon tank with a tiny bit of wiggle room.

I don’t recommend this for live plants since you would probably need a second LED tube (it comes with one). Also, if you’re into glofish (I’m not) or decorations that would pop in blue light, I would stay away.

The blue light looks nice and is dim and will accent the glow type decorations, but not as well as other lights out there, and there’s no way to make this brighter to my knowledge other than getting another light.

The second light tube is $30, so after buying at regular price and the second light it puts it over $100 – which you could probably get a glass top and a brighter light for around that price if not a little bit more.

The hood looks a bit bulky, but that’s up to personal taste. Buy this if you need a light and top and don’t have live plants (or only have a couple that are low light requirement) and you can pop in a second light at your own pace.

The lid is nice, fits and works well. I prefer the hinged top design like this since it’s easier to feed than a small door. The issue is with the lights. It only comes with one LED tube and it isn’t very bright.

If I were to buy a second LED tube, it costs almost as much as the whole hood kit. I ended up returning the hood kit because of the cost of adding another light. I was also concerned it wouldn’t be bright enough for my planted fish aquarium even after adding a second light.

Now for the design drawback. The lights are recessed into a separate housing, which is smart for evaporating water, but the problem this creates is a narrower focus of the light. The front of the aquarium was dim and mostly a shadow from the rocks and plants I have in there.

Maybe if you have nothing else in your aquarium, or just background plants, you’ll be fine, but in my case, it was a dealbreaker. Unfortunately I had to return the hood/light kit.

I bought a Tetra Glofish 20 gallon aquarium that included a lot of of extras in October 2018. The glofish light did not work and the customer service was great. I was sent a new light and it worked fine until February 2019.

It does not turn on at all. I contacted customer service again since I am having problems finding this light and was told there is no warranty on the Glofish Blue and White LED Sticks if not a new purchase.

I am really disappointed in this product.

This light is nice and bright. Fits perfectly on a 125 gallon aquarium. Has a nice sleek design and looks great on top of the tank

I have been in the aquarium hobby for over 30 years. 25 of that in saltwater and 23 of that with reef tanks. Lighting had always been a mystery to me but a few years back I dove into understanding lights.

I spent hrs reading everything I could on them. Reviews, opinion, fact sheets and then on photosynthesis in the worlds reefs itself. Needle to say there is a lot of good info and a LOT of bad info. The I decided to just gets the lights I wanted to try myself.

I stated with AI Hydras and did my best to understand and utilize them. I ten upgraded to Radion G5 Blues. They were great and I really liked them. When the Skys were announced I was not impressed. Little by little I was more intrigued by them.

Finally I decided I would try them. I was nervous to switch lights again, however this is where the story changes. Ive had the SKYs on my tank for just under three months now and I have zero regrets.

There have been so many positives with these lights, lower temperature, less blue yeah spectrum is the same, higher pH, easier to take photos, and my wife likes that she can be in the room without her eyes hurting (me too).

To me these have been the ultimate upgrade in lights. I highly recommend them to anyone that has a tank big enough for them, keep in mind you only need two of these to cover a 6 foot long tank. I am looking forward to using these on my 10 year tank now.

I have no plans on changing my lights again, and I think that these will go the distance. I highly, highly recommend these lights.

Excellent light for the nano aquarium and in pairs on longer low tanks. Just the right amount of light for low light plants. The only recommendation I would have is to make the gap at the base a little wider so that the fixture fastens more snugly on thicker glass.

On nano aquariums with thinner glass this isn’t a problem.

While this light was very bright and allowed my plants to color up nicely, the first one I ordered arrived with a broken swivel-joint. The second one I ordered started to sag as if the neck could not support the night of the weight and the plastic casing has just snapped after a few months of use.

For the prove I expected something of higher quality.

This light is fine. You are paying a cheap price and you are getting a cheap light. I’ve had this light since last May, and I’ve had about 1/3 of the LEDs burn out so far. This light also gets extremely hot, so be careful while touching it.