Question on lighting....

[czcz]

I ran 2*23w spiral screw-in CF over 8gals with a painted white hood (a good reflector) and it behaved more like medium+ light than high light. It needed CO2 to beat BBA but grew vertical glosso, for example. Shalu ran 2*15w U-tube screw-in CF with a tin foil reflector (a poor reflector) and grew. L. arcuata without need for CO2. You can do whatever you want with screw-in CF provided they fit and you do not want very high light, and you remember restrike makes their ratings insignificant. If you do want very high light, an AH Supply kit (including reflector) will be much much better than anything one could do practically/efficiently with screw-in CF. You can get "Daylight" screw-in CFs in decent wattage at Home Depot and such.

[fish_4_all]

Sounds like I would like to know if it actually works. I would even think that 4 lights, set into dome reflectors all pointing in and down from all 4 corners could give some really awesome light. 4 15 watt bulbs should be more than enough for high light with a good dome reflector and this could also allow to keep the bulbs off the tank to reduce heat.

I know, quite a huge setup for a small tank but track lighting around 3 sides and over the top of a 75 gallon tank pointing to different points in the tank could be awesome looking.

As for 2 Wal-mart 10 watt bulbs, I don't know if i could grow algae with it becaus eI couldn't grow java fern with 1.5 NO.

I will join the challenge though and see what I can grow with 2 screw in bulbs over my other tank. Is not like I don't have the fixtures for it.

[Lonewolfblue]

Well, with the 2 10W screw-ins, the only plant that's doing poorly is the water sprite. Kind of fading away. But as for the little piece of java moss, the red foxtail, and the corkscrew vals, not growing, but not looking bad either. Still looking healthy, just not shooting up, lol.