stupid light question

[Twilight Storm]

OK I have a dumb question since I already ordered the silly hood.... Which I THOUGHT would be ok so long as I got 6500k-7000k bulbs... *beats her head on the wall*

I have a 29 gallon tank...

I wanted to grow plants in it, looking up plants I would like to get it says I need so many watts per gallon. Most florescent bulbs are like 15 watts....

Does this mean:
I would need 87 watts of bulb for my 29 gallon to grow moderate light plants? 6 bulbs??? each 6500k-7000k kelvin????

[kfryman]

Well, T8 bulbs aren't very powerful, something like a T5 fixture will have more watts and output more lumens. What plant or plants did you have in mind?

So the funny thing is, the watts per gallon rule doesn't really apply to newer bulbs, only T12s, because a T5 could have the same wattage as a T8, but it outputs way more lumens or units of light. The lumens are how you would have to measure it along with the surface area. It is confusing so people just say you need this many watts per gallon.

You probably could have put this thread in the tanks section and you probably would get more replies, I don't know if a mod could move it?

[kfryman]

Okay I found a really good video for you, search dustinsfishtanks and go to his playlists, go to the one about his 220 and scroll until you find the one about lights. It should show you, that you can still have good growth on plants and everything with less light.