Originally Posted by hamstermann

. 3 wpg is best for most aquatic plants.

Originally Posted by Trpimp147

i have a 75gal tank with african cichlids what would be the best plants to put with them

Originally Posted by tb19

Ok so i have a incandescent hood with two 10 watt Fluorescent bulbs. They give off bright and intense light. Which plants would be easy to take care of with this sort of lighting?

Originally Posted by vin

Well, I can tell you this - you either have an incandecent hood or a fluorescent hood....Are they tube lamps or to they screw in to the fixture? That would determine how easy it would be to manage your wattage without creating excess heat....That's not saying you cannot get screw-in fluorescent lamps to fit an incandescent hood, but they are generally more difficult to find for aquarium use and their ballasts are quite large.

Originally Posted by vin

Well, I can tell you this - you either have an incandecent hood or a fluorescent hood....Are they tube lamps or to they screw in to the fixture? That would determine how easy it would be to manage your wattage without creating excess heat....That's not saying you cannot get screw-in fluorescent lamps to fit an incandescent hood, but they are generally more difficult to find for aquarium use and their ballasts are quite large.

Originally Posted by griffin

that's interesting about the burning plants. i'd heard similar things, but only when low light plants like anubas and java ferns were placed under super high light.

i wonder if there are other contributing factors.

Originally Posted by griffin

you might not be able to find the right bulbs that will fit at a lfs, but walmart, lowe's, home depot, and places like that will have the bulbs. (this is assuming you need the screw in bulbs)

Originally Posted by sirdarksol

I'm guessing that he has the same things that I have, fluorescent lights with incandescent bases. They're pretty cheap at Drs Foster and Smith. They draw the same amount of power, but because they don't waste as much energy on heat (you can actually touch them while they're lit and they're just hot, not scalding), they produce more candles of light than an incandescent of the same wattage. They are really popular as home lights, because you can get the equivalent of a 55 watt light bulb in something like 10 watts.

Actually, I have a note/question on the same line. I've had two of these in a 10g tank's hood for a couple of months now, and all of the plants seem to be burning out, unless they are in shadow. For example, I've got water wysteria that the top of is yellow/brown, but the bottom is flourishing and bushing out. Once it reaches beyond the edge of the top's shadow, however, it begins to brown. I've got myrmio that has died off completely, and chain sword that has burned, except for two leaves that are hidden under a piece of driftwood.
I bought all of this from Drs Foster and Smith, and split the plants between this 10g tank and a 29g tank with a single fluorescent tube in the hood. The weird thing is, in the 29g (which shouldn't have enough light for much of anything, all of the plants are flourishing. The wysteria is beautiful and green, the myrmio (which is supposed to be a high-light plant) has already grown tall enough that it has to be trimmed, and the chain sword is well on its way to taking over the bottom of the tank. The two tanks are sitting on the same wall of a room, about 12 feet away from a large bay window that has bamboo shades, as well as a large tree in front of it, so I don't think they're getting an excess of sunlight, but I could be wrong.

Originally Posted by vin

I'm not aware of any compact fluorescent lamps that come with water proof ballasts in the size they would need.....

Originally Posted by griffin

the conversions for incand to fluor bulbs might be approximately right. however, wpg usually refers to fluor watts as opposed to incand.

Originally Posted by sirdarksol

I'm not sure how, but I believe that there is a difference between a 15W tube and a 15W compact bulb. The compact bulbs light a tank quite a bit better than the equivalent fluorescent tube.

Originally Posted by sirdarksol

I'm not sure how, but I believe that there is a difference between a 15W tube and a 15W compact bulb. The compact bulbs light a tank quite a bit better than the equivalent fluorescent tube.

Originally Posted by griffin

i will agree with you that they look different. however, i'm not sure how drastic the difference would be. is the difference because when you're using the bulbs, you usually use two, whereas the tubes, you usually use one?

with a tube, you'll generally get less restrike, making it a "better" bulb, but i prefer the bulb ones because you can get a wider range of wattages and it's easier to just keep one kind of bulb around (for aquaria and regular house lighting).

Originally Posted by vin

It's a simple formula that our lighting designers passed on to us. Yes, the fluorescent wattage is for that lamp - however the light output would be comparable to an incand. bulb.

Originally Posted by vin

It may be easier from a storage standpoint, but you can get T5 and T8 tubes in a wide array of wattages and temperatures.