The honest guide to LED lights for planted tanks in Australia

Every planted tank fails the same way: someone buys a light because the box said "full spectrum", plants melt, they quit. Here is what actually matters when you are choosing an LED for a planted tank in Australia — and none of it is the word on the box.

Spectrum is table stakes. Spread is what you are paying for.

A plant needs reds and blues plus enough full-spectrum white to look natural. Nearly every light we stock covers that. What separates a $30 bar from a $90 one is spread and mounting height: how evenly the light reaches the front corners of your tank, not just the bright stripe down the middle. A cheap bar mounted high gives you patchy growth. A good bar mounted at the right height gives you a carpet.

Match the light to the tank, not the Instagram post

• Nano tanks and bowls (under 30 cm): you do not need a big bar. The clip-on nano grow light grows moss, anubias and carpet plants happily. Save the money for fertiliser.
• Standard 60 cm tanks: the Aurora 48 bar is our volume pick — strong, cool-running, and it fits rimless and framed tanks.
• Deeper tanks and demanding plants: the full-spectrum 40 cm bar pushes enough red to keep red plants red, without cooking your water temperature.
• Display tanks you watch at night: add a set of submersible colour lights on a timer for the evening. Plants do not need it. You do.

The Australian-specific bits nobody tells you

Two things matter here. First, heat: an aluminium-body bar running cool matters more in a Queensland summer than a Dutch basement. Second, timers: buy a light with a built-in timer or put it on a smart plug — a consistent photoperiod of seven to eight hours beats ten erratic ones, and it keeps algae honest.

The one-sentence version

Buy the light that matches your tank's depth and length, mount it at the height the manufacturer says, run it seven hours a day, and spend the difference on CO2 and fertiliser. That combination grows plants. Boxes do not.