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lighting question
After looking at Jeff Kropp's, Frode Roe's, Erik Leung's and others tanks from photos, I see many of you grow plants more compact and less etiolated (ok, a botanical term long internodes or spaces betw/the leaves) than mine.
Clearly, more light would be required than what I provide to get this kind of growth, right? I currently have 3 watts/gal on my 40 gal tank from 4 30 watt flourescents. I use Corallife's Trichromatic bulbs and never let them get older than 6 months. As an aside, the Corallife hood I have ONLY takes Corallife T-12 bulbs; other types won't fire up well or at all; I tried many.
There is a great mirror inside the hood they are in, so reflected light is fine too. Nevertheless, my Glossostigma is growing up even before it is getting crowded. I aspire to it being more flat.
Do you all use compact fluourescents these days? or metal halides? Or a mix? When I recently visited Albany Aquarium in Albany, CA, I saw Jeff Kropp's tank there and it had a "mega" amount of light - a mixture of cf's, fluourescents, and who knows what. I couldn't look at the hood long enough to take it all in.
I'm interested in more light - what's the next step up from 3 watts/gal using standard
T-12 fluourescents?
Thanks much,
Roxanne Bittman