Plants in a BiUbe with LED light... Possible?

trblsm1

AC Members
Jun 3, 2008
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Leeds, England
I have recently started up keeping fish again after moving from North America to the UK and have ended up with a BiUbe. Coming from my smallest system at home which was a 30 gallon tall with an eclipse 3 set up etc, its a bit different from what I'm used to. (For anyone who doesn't know what a BiUbe is, since I think they were more popular over here than in North America, it's a 9 gallon tube shaped aquarium with a center tube that functions as part of the filter and keeps the bubbles from the airstone going up the centre of the tank.)

My BiUbe has the intelligent LED light option, which features a built in timer, simulates moonlight etc. The LED lights will be on for 8-14 hours a day, with the moonlight taking over for about another 6+. (Moonlight is just a low light blue LED.)

My question is, in order to go with live plants in the BiUbe, will a three bulb white LED provide enough light for them? The tank is in an area of the room where it recieves very little ambient daylight and I'm not really looking to start adding a bunch of exterior lighting to the tank as it's only 9 gallons, and in a limited space. If I had more room and was more confident of the floor I'd have a proper setup :D. If there is enough light from this type of lighting, what types of 'real' aquarium plants would be recommended? At least one type that would get quite thick and tall for the back would be great.

Also, it has a mix of biUbe substrate as it's part of the filter, and typical coloured aquarium gravel because I found the BiUbe stuff ugly. The internal filter works sort of like a mix of an undergravel and your basic 'aquaflow' filter, sucking water up from the bottom via a bubble tube and drawing it through carbon and a sponge. So I can't put anything fine enough on the bottom that it will clog up the filter intakes. It intakes through little slits in the round housing the filter assembly secures into. I'm used to having better substrate for live plants than just gravel, but my options seem limited by my setup. Are there any resonably undemanding plants that can work in my setup?

I've been told to just leave them potted by the lfs but in my experience potted aquarium plants end up dead.

Would I be better off with silk? I'm curious what take a more experienced aquatic green thumb takes on this situation.
 
Unfortunately this is a light system that is part of the tank itself so I'm not looking to buy or add any more lights to the system. I'm just curious if I can do live plants with the setup I already have, ie with three 'white' LED bulbs and one blue one. If I get really convinced I have to have live plants at any cost I can add a florecent tube to the outside of the tank but for the moment I'm only going to do it if I can keep the parts of the tank down to the sort of all in one system it is now.

But thanks for the info.
 
There's a possiblity of being able to sucessfully maintain live plants, but, without knowing the actual specifications of the LEDs then it's a shot in the dark; no pun intended.

If the tank can be disassembled it's a posibility that you could add these newer, brighter LEDs to it. I do love LEDs for their super efficient ways of turning energy into almost all light.
 
You pretty much confirmed what I was thinking. The guy at the lfs told me it wouldn't be an issue with the LEDs and that it would get enough light from the rest of the room anyway, but as it's in an L shaped room in a corner of the L with no window, it gets very little ambient light. I'm thinking that with the 'easy' tank I might have to go with 'easy' fake plants until I'm in a position to have a 'real' tank again, lol.

That or mount a supplimental light to the wall beside the tank to run for the plants.
 
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