Advice on lighting for 29 gallon tank

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Advice on lighting for 29 gallon tank
From: Noel Llopis-Artime <llopis at cs_unc.edu>
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 14:53:39 -0500 (EST)
In-Reply-To: <199512290839.DAA24536 at looney_actwin.com> from "Aquatic-Plants-Owner at actwin_com" at Dec 29, 95 03:39:02 am

Hello,

I was wondering what the best "budget" lighting setup is for a 29 gallon
tank. Currently it only has one 20W fluorescent bulb (yikes!), and even
though my Crypts and Java moss are doing fine, I would like to improve it.

I've read that ideally I would need a total of 60W for my 29 gallon tank.
Now bulbs of that size (24" I think) only come in 20W so I need to get
3 of them. I have only seen another hood that has 2 bulbs, and is about
$50 (from a mail order place). Should I instead get a glass top and three
strips of light? Should I get 2 strips and one of them with 2 bulbs?
The problem is also that both the filter and the heater come out of the
tank, so a glass top is going to be hard to fit.

Also, what is the most economical way of getting all this? 

Thanks for any advice!


--Noel