Small Aquarium Light

[SurfsUp]

What light would you recommend for a small tank with live plants? I am hoping to find a light that turns on and off on a schedule (e.g. on for 8 hours) by itself.

As further context, I am new to keeping aquariums. Thanks for your thoughts!

[Aquaviewer]

What light would you recommend for a small tank with live plants? I am hoping to find a light that turns on and off on a schedule (e.g. on for 8 hours) by itself.

As further context, I am new to keeping aquariums. Thanks for your thoughts!

There are many options.  You can either go with a plug and play light from the LFS or a myriad of options online including Amazon if you are up to a bit of DIY. Advantage of an aquarium specific light is most everything you need will be built in, the downside is cost as even a small light can get pricey.  If you are handy, you can easily adapt other lights, but you will need to figure out a way to mount them and you may have trouble finding the wattage and spectrum you are looking for in the size you want, but the cost can be much lower (as can the build quality so beware).

Also depends on what you are calling a small aquarium given that as the aquarium gets bigger you need more light (i.e watts) to get the penetration and coverage you need. Assuming a 10 to 15 gallon, you are looking for an LED, something likely in the 10 - 20 watts (1000-1800 lumen) in the 5000K to 6500K range for plants.  Many LED options come with selectable spectrum allowing you to pick 3000-6500K.  Avoid lights with a motions sensor to turn them on as they don't always work will timers and the selectable spectrum can change each time the light is activated.  You also need something that can be suspended over the tank some how with a clamp or legs, which, if you bought an aquarium specific light, it would have.

As you increase wattage/lumens you are increasing intensity.  If you are just keeping anubias, cryps, or basic stem plants they should do fine if everything else in in balance with 10 -15watts.  Its not as simple as just throwing on a light and your plants will grow.  As you increase light intensity (20, 30 40 watts on a small tank) the plants nutrient demands go up and you must supplement nutrients in some way, have proper substrate etc...  or other things will out complete like algae and you just end up with a super bright algae tank with dead plants.  You can go down the rabbit hole on line reading up on that. 

If you just want to get up and running, a basic light in the 10-15 watt range for small tanks are just fine and relatively self sustaining just with fish and feeding.

As for timer you can use anything from an old school dial timer to a smart plug adapter you can run off an app like kasa.  Many aquarium specific lights come with apps where you can program your light cycle (on/off) right in the light itself with no need for an additional timer.

I'm hesitant to recommend an aquarium specific light as people can become quite passionate about the subject and opinions can be strong.  But if you have the $$ the small Fluval and Aqueon lights can be a good starting point as they are plug and play.