Incandeascent lighting for plants?

[Moe36]

I was given a free tank with the aquarium, hood, and lighting fixture, but its not a flourescent. Its 2 incandesascent fixtures. Anyway, will this be sufficient for growing low maintenence plants? And will it heat the water? Would i need a submirsible heater then? Thanks.

ps- anyone know what these hoods are called?

 

[cdawson]

Nope, incandescent lights grow nothing but algae, and lots of it!
You need flourescents to grow plants, the light needs to be capable of different spectrums of light.

 

[Neuve]

lol had the same prob... only i bought it and had to change it... hoods have the same name as far as im concerned.

Yes it will heat your water. Lol. Mine is a 10 gal'er and water temp rose like 4 degrees or so...

Preety crappy for my purposes
G'luck
Pato

 

[TankGirl]

I use one of those 10-gal hoods with the double incandescent lighting and put those pigtail fluorescent bulbs in them, which are made to screw into incandescent fixtures. You can get pretty high wattage going that route! The light tends to be a bit yellowish, but that keeps you from having to replace the hood.

 

[Moe36]

Thx all.

TankGirl: how much were those pigtail flourescents? And what wattage would you reccomend for a 20g? Will they heat the water?