Beat affordable light for growing plants?

[Bkcut10]

I now have an extra tank which I want to start growing aquatic plants! However, I have been trying to weed out what the best light is for the buck. Can anyone help point me in the right direction?

 

[jetajockey]

Hi. It depends on your budget and tank. What kind of tank is it going on? Bang for buck is usually CFLs but doesn't work as well on larger tanks.

 

[Maxkolbe]

I spent ten bucks for a clip on lamp and cfl bulb for my ten gallon but it definitely wouldn't work on larger tanks without multiple lamps. The only downside is one side of the tank is brighter than the other as opposed to the even coverage you get with a hood light.

 

[Bkcut10]

I was going to use a ten gallon so that might work pretty well. Did you guys pick this up at a fish store?

 

[Maxkolbe]

Nope, I got mine at menards.

 

[Coursair]

I got my ZooMed UltraSun 6,500K mini CFLs from Amazon.

You can get a single 26w CFL or two 13w CFLs if you want to buy from a hardware store. I'm using the stock hood and swapped Incandescents for my nifty mini CFLs.

 

[Maxkolbe]

Do you go by the wats or wat equivalent when buying cfls? I bout a 40 wat equivalent that it says uses 13 wats and I didn't know which it was

 

[Wy Renegade]

Go buy yourself two of the aluminum clip on lamps from your local hardware store. In the same store go find a GE Daylight 65,000 bulb pack with two bulbs. Build yourself a wooden rack to clip the lamps to on the top of the tank, add a timer and you're good to go.