Lighting Problems

[LightningCloud]

Hey guys. I just recently have added plants to my tank, causing me to use lights for the first time. My axies, Lightning and Cloud, seem to be extremely stressed just from 30 minutes of the light on. I immediately turned the light off and let them relax. I just wanted help on what type of light to use and how long to use it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Otterwoman]

If they don't get used to it, I think the comfort of your animals is more important. Axies often destroy the plants anyway, so just get some nice plastic ones and you'll all be happier.

 

[debadog]

回复: Lighting Problems

I also encountered this issue. The trick is to only get plants that can do well in very low light conditions/no supplementary CO2, and they should do fine with indirect sunlight from a window. My tank is across the room from my window, and when I'm out during the day I open half my curtain and lower my blind so that direct sunlight never hits the tank but it gets enough residual sunlight for the plants. I also make sure that my axolotl still has plenty of shadowy places to hide in if he needs to, even if light is hitting the tank. A backdrop for your tank can help with this.

I came home with a bacopa, amazon swords and a crypt, and the amazon swords and crypt are doing well but the bacopa died. Bacopa should be fine but theres a chance I killed it as I gave them all a really hard scrub under the tap (I was seriously paranoid about getting snails!). You have to leave the tank lights on for at least 6 hours a day to keep most plants alive and its just not fair to your axolotl, so you just need to do some trial and error to see what will work for you without lighting.

As Otterwoman mentioned, depending on how badly you want live plants it might just be worth getting some nice silk ones instead...