Which is most efficient lighting?

[Rychean]

Hey everybody,
Just got my 20 tall set up. I am growing water wisteria, anubias (barteri, I believe), java fern and jungle val. No CO2 at the moment, but I have the DIY reactor ready to go.
I currently have 2 10W CFL's (6500K) installed horizontally. After research, I hear this may not be the most efficient way. So which of these options would be better:

1) get two shop reflectors and install the CFL's vertically (possibly upgrading to the 26W bulbs)
2) get two 10W U-shaped mini-florescents (the ones at Wal-Mart)

One of my hopes is to not drop a ton of money (otherwise I would have just got some T8 strip lights).
Thanks!
Brian

 

[Oohitsae]

go with the shop reflectors. You will be able to get bigger watted bulbs in them and that'd help a lot.

The u=shaped mini flourescents are nice, but they aren't going to make any difference from the CFL's you have currently.

 

[armymp327]

shop reflectors would be your best bet, since even though ive never used cfls i have heard that their biggest problem is wasted light because they are not directed down like most good florescent light fixtures are

 

[Rychean]

I just hit lowes.com and saw that I could fit 3 of the smaller shop lights over my tank. Would it be overkill to load up 3 26W CFL's (vertically) for these particular plants? Or would it give me the option of putting in some higher light plants?

 

[armymp327]

if you want high light, then you will need to start looking into Co2, with either liquid carbon, DIY co2, or pressurized

 

[Rychean]

if you want high light, then you will need to start looking into Co2, with either liquid carbon, DIY co2, or pressurized

DIY CO2 is ready to go. Would 3 26W CFL's then be considered high light? These would be mounted right at the water line.

This just hit me - I want to basically set these reflectors onto the glass of my hood (rather than suspend them over the water). I know CFL's run pretty cool, but will there be a danger of heat getting trapped within the lamp and causing problems?

 

[armymp327]

here is a very good article you should read, i dont use CFL but from what that article says, using 3 of those lights would be medium to high light depending on how far they are from the substrate.

Lighting an Aquarium with PAR instead of Watts

and i use CFL in my room and they get too hot to touch for more then a few seconds so i would not have them that close to the glass top as it could cause it to crack over time because of the cooler water underneath, hanging them would be the way to go.