Just trying to get some awesome ideas. The cool thing my friends keep saying is that the background is cool. My kids love it. If you can see it. It is outside painted backwards. It was hard but I did it. My live plants aren't growing so I'm thinking of going fake. I would love to know how you can have like grass on the bottom. That is so cool.
I see by your pic that you have the kind of light that comes with the tank. These are only good enough to showcase your fish and won't grow plants even if they say they do. There's many plants you can grow with a moderate amount of light you can make with plant lights from the hardware store, but grasses and ground covering plants I think you are referring to need expensive aquarium lighting systems costing a minimum of $100.00. Then you have to replace bulbs every 8-12 months because they lose their power, and that costs from $30 up for each bulb. The hardware variety are cheap and there's many nice plants that will grow with those when outfitted for a fish tank.
Yes, to grow plants you could use a florescent bulb for a few type of plants. I have live plants in my tank right now and they are doing fine with florescent bulbs. I also have a backround that is really cool. Don't listen to peter because he's out of his mind. You can use florescent bulbs with plants
Just try to grow plants with the single 15 or 20 watt bulbs that come with most tanks. It doesn't work, and I've had other people try with them and fail. I do recommend using 40 watt fluorescents if you would take the time to read anything I write freshwaterpleco. Maybe if there is another light source like indirect sunlight or a room light in addition to the little lights that come with most aquariums you could keep some plants alive.
