# Does blue light affect plants?



## zaner123 (Aug 31, 2012)

So I just got a Current Satellite LED Plus light for my 29 gallon tank. 

It is lightly planted with low/mid-light requiring plants... I know that plants want 8-10 hours of light per day, and that anything over that doesn't help them, encourages algae growth, and can even hurt the plants. 

So my question is... *Does blue light affect plants in any positive or negative way?* I like to leave the full spectrum light on for about 10 hours, then turn the blue light on afterward for a few hours until going to bed. Overall the plants get about 16 hours of light a day including the blue light.

Besides that, does ambient light like other lamps, sunlight through the window, or anything else affect a planted tank very strongly? 

One last question: is there any color besides blue that doesn't affect the plants?

Thanks


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## Cinbos (Dec 8, 2012)

Here you go!

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=348969


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## zaner123 (Aug 31, 2012)

Thank you!


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## Aquatic Delight (Mar 2, 2012)

zaner123 said:


> So I just got a Current Satellite LED Plus light for my 29 gallon tank.
> 
> It is lightly planted with low/mid-light requiring plants... I know that plants want 8-10 hours of light per day, and that anything over that doesn't help them, encourages algae growth, and can even hurt the plants.
> 
> ...



to answer your last question first i'm confused how can you ask if blue light has any effect, and then later make the asumption that blue light has no effect?

any way not to nit pick you, its not true that light over 10 hours will grow algae. i run my lights for 12-16hrs a day and have no algae problems in 2 of the 3 tanks i run for that long. one gets a hair algae out break once a year. being that plant is a living organism it will continue to feed as long as there is a food source for it. so, again to say, that anything over 10 hours would a incorrect statement. if we were growing plants that on lived in one small spot on the planet that recieved only 4hrs of light, then it would be of concern. but anyway, there are a few threads of non scientific studies of people leaving blue lights on all night (myself included) and personally i found that my plants have better growth when i leave the blue on over night. infact it has encouraged my anubis to flower on two of the three times it flowered for me.

and yes ambiant light does have an effect on plants in the tank. but that really depends on the intensity of the light. if you have a reading light pointed directly at the tank it will have more effect than a reading light that has a small amount spilling into the tank.

at my old apartment the morning sun would hit the side of my tank, and all the plants would turn to grab the light, until i turned on my tank light.



but please let me know how that light works for you! i have been looking at it for sometime now. but i'm worried about the par Value of it.


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## zaner123 (Aug 31, 2012)

Thank you for sharing your personal experience with these things...

I might have asked the questions strangely... but I really just wanted to learn as much as possible.

The satellite light is stunningly bright. I really hope it grows my plants reasonably well.

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