Tony wrote:

The tank came with a single flourescent bulb light hood. I ordered and just
received another light hood--this one having two bulbs. This gives me 3
flourescent bulbs over the tank--each of them 40W bulbs.

(snip)

There are a few things I'm unclear on and would like help.

*I'm currently putting 120W of light into this tank. That's still not
considered very high, is it? Is there any way to solve this? I can't fit
another light hood on the tank. I'm not sure what type of bulb is in the
light hoods currently. It is whatever is shipped with an "All-Glass
Aquarium, Inc." light hood.

Your goal for a planted should be 2-4 watts of quality flourescent light per
gallon. This metric is crude, but works in most cases. That means you want
150-300 watts of good flourescent light over your tank.

If you can, return the new two-bulb hood, and purchase/build one of the
following:

* Buy a compact flourescent fixture. Some vendors now sell 48"
hoods with 200+ watts of CF.

* Build a compact flourescent kit. www.ahsupply.com is the
leading vendor.

* Build a hood with 4-6 standard 48" flourescent bulbs. This route
is significantly cheaper, and according to many list members it
works well, but it takes more work on your part.

The key points in building your own:

* Good reflectors increase light output significantly
* Electronic ballasts produce more light than the cheap magnetic
ballasts in shop light fixtures.

If going the Compact Flourescent route, bulb temperatures of 5000K-6700K are the
right range. Actinic and deeper blue bulbs are for specific sal****er
applications.