Is submersible lighting good for plants?

Question

I have a 48 gal freshwater and my plants keep dying even though I fertilize regularly.Are submersibles the answer?

Answer 1

Submersible lights will not help, what you need is a lot of light for longer hours (at-least 12 hrs a day) as well as plant growth vitamins in liquid form to be added to the water.

You can also add a CO2 system which is of great benefit to growing plants as carbon is a building block of life.

By adding CO2, the gas is available in abundance and plant life flourishes. And through photosynthesis, plants absorb CO2 then release oxygen during the day.

Cheers :-)

Answer 2

No - the only submersibles I've seen are small LED lights that wouldn't have enough output (besides, plants tend to grow towards the light!).

The problem may be the choice of plants for the lighting you've got. Are you using the same light hood that came with the tank? Figure thta plants should have about 2 watts of light per gallon of water, so if your tank is a 48 gallon, you should have about 100 watts of lighting for most to survive - chances are you don't have near that with a standard hood.

You might try plants that can tolerate low-light conditions - Java fern, Java moss, and Anubias are good choices. Also, if you add too much fertilizer without supplying CO2, the plants won't grow as well, so I'd cut back on the fertilizer to about 1/4-1/2 of what's recommended - otherwise, you may be feeding an algae outbreak.

Some other considerations could be what you're keeping in the tank. Do you have any fish/snails that could be eating your plants?