Planted tank question?

[Marx]

i don't have one anymore but just curious..

a 20gal tank with dual twist lamps from home depot.. a friend of mine has it and his plants look great.. and his tank looks crazy bright lol.. he also uses a Co2 system.. nutrifin type with ladder..

anyhow was wondering your thought.. i assumed that it would cause crazy algae?

[BigDaddy]

My tank looks crazy bright too Marx... but ya need it for good growth.

As long as everything is in balance, all the light in the world won't cause algae.

[Marx]

but are those twist lamps any good? for plants i mean? there 13w i think..

[NjOyRiD]

is that the bulbs that looks like spirals?

[BigDaddy]

They are not as good as a linear fluorescent tube.. but certainly better than incandescent.

[Marx]

will they grow plants or just help the plants survive?

[Jim]

is that the bulbs that looks like spirals?

yes...other known as "compact  fluorescent"

[BigDaddy]

But you can also get linear compact fluorescents.  Those are excellent for planted tanks.

[gvv]

will they grow plants or just help the plants survive?

As with tubular fluorescent depends on the number and light intensity...

[kennyman]

a 'Globe' brand 13w spiral compact fluorescent =800 lumen
a generic 60w incandescent soft white =520 lumen

Those two 13W give way more light intensity than 120W of incandescent!

[BigDaddy]

Now.. to put that into perspective....

1600 lumen won't grow a whole heck of a lot in anything but the smallest tanks.

A single 55 W compact fluorescent puts out on average 4500 lumens

[Mila]

13W spiral is not daylight bulb.
HD has daylight spirals in 15W, 27W and one between( 23 or close to it)
I have it in all my small tanks and I like it, low to med. light plants like it, too.
W/g formula should be double, I guess, 3-4W/g for low light plants.

Mila