Any advice on what I should do with new stock hood?

Hey Everybody,

I just set up my new tank yesterday: 30 gal. It came with a flourescent light, 17 watts.

If I want to ahieve 1.5-2 watts per gal what is the best course of action?

Can I buy a different kind of bulb today that will fit my current hood?

I don't have that many plants yet, however I want to start stocking up and I would like to have the proper lighting, although I don't want it to strong because I don't really want to jumo into injecting CO2.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

[rich311k]

You cant just replace the bulb. You may be able to get a twin tube or a pc strip that will fit the hood. That will put you were you want to be. Is it a glass top or the plastic one. If it is the plastic one you will probably need to replace it with the glass top.

[Purrbox]

As an alternative you could look into ODNO. By replacing the ballast you can get more light out of your current fixture and bulb. It will shorten the life of the bulb however. Do a search on ODNO and you should find lots of directions with the details on what you would need to do.

Other than that your only other option would be to do as Rich suggested and suppliment/replace the fixture.

One more ?, I did buy a new bulb just until I can afford a better solution. It is 20 watts Flourecent instead of 17 but it actually looks duller than the other one? How come?

Thanks

[hulkamaniac]

Go with compact flourescent. I've got two of them and I love them both dearly.

[Purrbox]

Not all bulbs are created equal. The difference is probably related to the the color spectrum of the two bulbs. Check out the K ratings, they'll probably be fairly different. Another possibility is that your fixture isn't meant to be able to power the 20 Watt bulb, and since it is underpowered it is dimmer than it should be.