Are these good lights for a breeding rack?

HI everyone, I am going to Lowes tomorrow to pick up some lumber to build a 55 inch, 3 shelf breeding rack. I am going to try growing some plants to sell in some of the tanks, so I decided to get some lights for each shelf. I don't have a lot to spend on them (by I, I mean I don't think my dad will want to spend a ton of money ). I was wonder if these would do ok. I'm only gonna put one bulb in them. I don't think the tanks need 8 WPG!

Here's the fixtures:

And the bulbs:

 

Those are quite powerful. Your looking at 80 watts of power under those. How big are the tanks? The kelvin rating is perfect.

 

I'm only putting one bulb in the fixtures, not 2. They will be over some 10g's, 20 long's, and 20 gallon highs. I didn't really want to get t12's because of the high wattage, but they were a lot cheaper than all the other lights.

 

It should be okay then, depending how far the bulb is from the water.

 

Something to keep in mind, 40 watts from t12 is significantly weaker than 40 watts from a t5 bulb. It's not really watts per gallon that matters so much as PAR / the intensity of the light. It's generally better to have one 100 watt light than two 50 watt lights for growing plants.

 

Something to keep in mind, 40 watts from t12 is significantly weaker than 40 watts from a t5 bulb. It's not really watts per gallon that matters so much as PAR / the intensity of the light. It's generally better to have one 100 watt light than two 50 watt lights for growing plants.

True, that had slipped my mind. Thanks for the explanation!