PL-L CF, trimming stemmed plants

To: Aquatic-plants at actwin_com
Subject: PL-L CF, trimming stemmed plants
From: User645273 at aol_com
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 20:01:02 -0500

Hello,
    This is my first letter to the list, though I've been lurking for about 6
weeks now.  Anyhow,  I have two questions for everybody.
    One, I was looking for a cheap way to increase the lighting in my tank.
 I have a 52g hex flatback, which makes it a tad difficult.  I currently have
two 4' striplights (4 bulbs) with a mix of cool whites and growbulbs.
 Unfortunately, I have driftwood which is leaching tanins into the water,
makung it quite dark.  I rather like the brownish water so I would like to
increase the light going into it.
    I was looking in the Grainger's book and saw 50watt PL-L compact
flourecent bulbs.  They are 22.5" in length and but out 4100~4200 lumens.
 The only problem is that the color is in the 3k~3500 range.  The main reason
I'm interested in these buls is that they can be powered by a standard
electronic flourecent ballast.  They are basically short 4' bulbs.  Does
anyone know if/where I could get a hold of a warmer bulb?  By the way, I did
some calculating and found that this bulb also has a higher lumen/watt ratio
than the lower wattage CF bulbs.
    My second question is how I should go about trimming by stemmed plants?
 I have Cabomba Carolinia(sp?) and M. Aquatica (sp?).  They grew like weeds
when I planted them, which coincided with a large water change (clear water).
 They are at the surface and sending shoots from variuos nodes.  The M.
aquatica looked great at first, but since the water has darkened, the edges
of the leaves have died back.  The cabomba is growing with large spaces
between nodes, which I assume means a lack of light.
    Any help would be welcomed. TIA

                  Pete Datcuk