Different Types of Grow Lights in Desktop Aquaponics

Everyone knows that plants need light to grow and photosynthesize, but there are different ways to accomplish this. Obviously, one option is to provide natural light, but in some cases this isn’t possible. Today I’ll talk about the different types of grow lights, and some pros of all of them. 

The first one to talk about is Light Emitting Diode lights, better known as LED. This one is the most popular type of grow light, and it is the one I use in my aquaponics system at High Marq. The reason these are chosen more than other lights is because they don’t produce a lot of heat, are very durable, use less energy than other lights, and don’t have any harmful content like mercury. 

The second one is High Intensity Discharge Lights, or HID. These are also an extremely popular type of grow light, and there are good reasons for it. They can be run 24 hours a day and not change the temperature of the system, they don’t emit a lot of harmful wavelengths that can damage your plants, and like the LED lights, there is no harmful mercury.  In the photo on the right, you see plants growing under HID lights.

The last type of light is fluorescent lights. They are also quite popular, however not as popular as the last two lights mentioned. They also produce low heat, are typically very affordable, last longer than original bulbs, energy efficient, and are usually very accessible.

In general, any or all of these options are very good ones, and whichever you choose will provide light for your plants.

Please feel free to leave comments or questions below.