Light suggestions

[Hazelba]

Hello. I am about to start setting up a 30 gallon tank for an axie. I want it to be a planted tank but I have read various different opinions on what type of light axis can handle. For instance I've read that a dual t5 fixture is perfectly fine and too bright. What sort of light fixtures have people with axies had and how did the axies respond?

 

[omgitsbekahxD]

I unfortunately can't answer your question about having a light since I've never used one for my tank, but there are plants out there that don't require light on your tank. I have an anubias nana and java fern in my tank at the time. I also plan to have a moss ball, bamboo, and some lillies once I put my guy in his larger tank. (im growing the bamboo and lillies in seperate containers right now) All of these plants have done fine with just the lighting that I have in my room. So just letting you know that you can have plants without a light if you would like to go that route. Hope I have helped


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[JoshBA]

You could just get a good t8 fluorescent or cfl fixture in the a color spectrum of 5000k - 6500k. I wouldn't go with a dual t5HO mainly because they produce quite a bit of heat. Look up lighting for low light planted tanks and you'll find some pretty good articles. If you want to spend a little more, led lights would be great as they produce next to no heat. For leds, the marineland doublebright led is supposedly sufficient for low light plants.
In most cases, aquarium plants (even low light ones) won't grow very fast with just ambient room lighting, but a bright room with lots of windows they would do just fine (only problem with a room with many windows is it can heat up quite a bit).