Reddit mentions of Beamswork EA Timer FSPEC LED Aquarium Light Freshwwater Plant Extendable (50cm - 18")

/r/plantedtank is a great resource. I will share my personal experience with you to help you avoid some of the pitfalls I experienced.

• Here is a great site that lists some easy-to-care-for plant types that don't require a high-tech setup (I will clarify setup types below): 23 Easy To Grow & Low Light Plants For Your Aquarium
  
  
• Planted tanks can basically be broken into two categories, low and high tech. Low-tech tanks generally consist of a decent light, and some nutrients. High-tech tanks will utilize more aggressive lighting systems, more intentionally calculated nutrients, and the injection of CO2. Since you are just starting out I will keep the info tailored to low-tech setups.
  
  
• Key items for a successful planted tank:
  
  
  • Plants that will grow well under your current setup (if you try and grow something like a carpeting grass with a low-power light and no CO2 you are never going to succeed) Anubias, Java Fern, Java moss, and Amazon sword are all great starter plants. They are hardy and require nothing more than a decent light, correct planting, and a little nutrition.
    
    
• A light capable of penetrating the depth at which you want to grow plants. Lighting is generally measured in a PAR rating nowadays. Simply put, it is the depth to which the light can reach with enough lumen output to give plants what they need. The deeper your tank, the stronger the light you need. This is why a lot of people opt for tanks with a shorter height and longer horizontal space like a 20 gallon long. Personally, I would not skimp on your light. It is one of the most steadfast limiting factors of what you are trying to grow.
  
  
• This will grow plants, but slowly and it won't do too well in a deep tank(~$26.00): Beamworks LED
  
  
• While more expensive, you will get astoundingly better results out of something like this (~$75.00): Fugeray Planted+ This light is amazing and penetrates my 20 gallon tall all the way to the substrate with absolutely no problem. While about twice as expensive, they are incredibly well-built and the LEDs are in the correct spectrum for plant growth. I can't recommend it enough.
  
  
• A timer for your lights. Algae thrives in unstable conditions. Whether that is fluctuations in lighting periods, or CO2, algae loves instability. Your fish will also appreciate consistency. At about $8.00 usually, light timers are invaluable.
  
  
• Nutrient rich substrate or substrate that is specifically designed to handle decaying matter. While not a necessity, it helps a ton to use a substrate like Eco-Complete or something like this. They will save you a ton of trouble down the road and they last forever.
  
  
• Nutrients and CO2 supplements. All plant growth, whether aquatic or terrestrial, is effected by a "triangle" of limiting factors: Lighting, nutrients, and CO2. If any of these are lacking, they inhibit the plants ability to utilize the other two. The reason the plants I linked at the very beginning are considered low-tech, is they will still do fairly well if they experience a lack of one of the three. If you want your tank to succeed you will want to supplement nutrients and liquid CO2. Seachem's product line is EXCELLENT for beginners. It is very easy to use and very low maintenance. Seachem Flourish, Seachem Flourish Trace, and Seachem Excel will be all you need. Get yourself some free syringes from a local drug store or pharmacy. They make accurately dosing additives extremely easy. These products will last you quite awhile if dosed accurately.
  
  
• Buy everything you can from Amazon. Everything I have listed is significantly cheaper there as opposed to any of your local fish stores.
  
  If you have any more questions let me know. Hope this helps.

I’ve really never liked buying kits and I always have bad luck with them — you almost always get stuck with shitty tanks, heaters & filters while paying way more than what they’re worth. Most cheapy HOBs also don’t provide any real biological filter media either — just charcoal (which is useless & potentially harmful over time) and filter floss that they want you to buy replacements for.

If I were you, I’d invest in a 10g tank (14 usd at petco & 10 usd during the dollar per gallon sale), this heater or a similarly priced one, and a cheap sponge filter like this. Same cost for a bigger, better tank with a reliable filtrarion that you won’t have to suppress the flow on. You can also go with a 5g, but that’s a minimum and if she’s an active fish, she’ll definitely appreciate the 10g. it’ll also be easier for you as a new fishkeeper to keep the water parameters steady in a larger tank.

You may need to buy a light or lid, but you do have the option of buying a light that will grow plants or the cheapest LED you can find.

If your planning to do a carpeted tank like I “thought” I could do, make sure to not add large aggregate substrate as it will make carpeting difficult if not impossible. I do weekly water changes of about 30-40%.

My stocking is 7 (used to have eight) neon tetras, one clown pleco, one albino bristlenose pleco, and one Werner killifish. Since I have a relatively high stocking with so much live algae and microorganisms, my plecos produce a lot of waste, so I feel the need to do regular and relatively large water changes.

I’ve bought like three different lights trying to find a good cheap one that does the job and promotes strong plant growth and i have settled on this one light. I really like it and it has a plug that you can connect a timer to control both, day and night lights if you want to.

Here is the link:

Light:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B019YXYO1E?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_pd_title

Timer:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00EDMOHH8?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_pd_title

https://www.amazon.com/Beamswork-Timer-Aquarium-Freshwwater-Extendable/dp/B019YXYO1E/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491484353&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=beamworks%2Ba120&th=1

Just got this light in the mail today. I am starting a dry start planted tank here soon and it looks like a pretty intense light for how inexpensive it is. Has both a day and night time setting and there is a timer you can buy for it as well.

To be honest, that’s a high light fixture. There are even cheaper models that would be more medium light like a Nicrew or a different model of beamswork like EA. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B019YXYO1E/

$30 to light a 10g is actually a pretty high budget.

When I started my dry start I just used two clamp-on lights from home depot each with a 6500k cfl bulb in them and it worked great. Based on the budget you mentioned below maybe you might want to try this light (https://www.amazon.com/Beamswork-Timer-Aquarium-Freshwwater-Extendable/dp/B019YXYO1E/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491484353&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=beamworks%2Ba120&th=1)? Not sure if anyone else has had experience with it but here's the video in which I heard about it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uun4umTRNxY).

You could try the beamswork one. The timer is sold separately though.

I have a old spec V and a new Spec V and the new light is far better.

I also have used these with great sucess, I have the older version of this on my SpecV.
https://smile.amazon.com/Beamswork-Timer-Aquarium-Freshwwater-Extendable/dp/B019YXYO1E

This is the one I have (6500K version)
https://smile.amazon.com/Beamswork-Timer-6500K-Aquarium-Freshwater/dp/B01A9F85SO