[ShukiAi]

So I recently got a 30 gallon tank and it came with a fluorescent light hood. T-8 I believe. Right now I do not have the money replace the lighting - however, I would like to pick up a decent fluorescent bulb for the tank. My main concern is plant growth since I am starting a planted tank.
If anyone has any suggestions on good fluorescent bulbs or what worked/didn't work for you, I'd really appreciate it!
Thank you!

 

[Byron]

I have one of these tanks (it is 30 inches in length) with the basic fluorescent T8 hood that holds one 24-inch tube. [Let me know if your tank is different.]

I have experimented with various T8 tubes on this tank, and the best ones are the Hagen Life-Glo or ZooMed Ultra Sun. Both are 6700K [US may be 6500K, no matter] which is the best spectrum/wavelength for plants, gives true colour rendition. And these two tubes have sufficient intensity to grow low and moderate light requiring plants. Photo below shows my tank at one stage with the Life-Glo tube.

There may be other good tubes that I have not tried, but one or both of the above are readily available in most fish stores in NA. They are a bit more expensive than other "basic" tubes, but the "basic" don't do the job. I had one of the so-called "plant" tubes that failed, and a GE Daylight tube that was insufficient intensity. Most of the plants slowly died. Returning to a Life-Glo revived a few that were not completely dead.

Byron.