I have two questions for you. I have a 25w fluorescent bulb lighting my
10Gal aquarium. it is only 12inches long, however it is a not very nice
bluey white colour. I would like to get one of the arcadia tropical bulbs,
or some sort of beauty bulb, as the appearance is nicer but I have only seen
them in an 8watt. At the moment I have about 2.5 watts per gallon if I move
over to one of the arcadia bulbs I will only get about 1 watt per gallon.

I am growing Vallis, hygrophilia (difformis I think), a bit of eloda and
some borneo swords. I would like to get some dwarf hairgrass as well. would
I have enough light for these plants on an eight watt tube?

If not is it possible to get a tube, the same length (12") but with more
than 8watts, that is a quite nice colour?

My second question is, how the hell do you get stem plants like hygrphilia
and eloda to stay in the gravel. I can get two sorts from my LFS, bunched.
where the bottom half inch or so is wrapped in a spongy material and held
closed by the lead weights. Or as separate strands altogether. which ever I
purchase I tend to separate the stems and plant each stem individually, this
usually results in quite a few coming up out of the substrate. I think I
will leave them bunched together next time and just remove the lead and
plant the bunch, although this won't give me a very nice spread if I do it
this way. How does everyone else do it?

Stu