Only flourescent?

[UBigBobby]

For a planted tank, do you NEED to have flourescent light, or an you do with normal "yellow" bulbs. I have a 40G tall, with 50 watts of normal yellow bulb lighting. Is this ok? or sould I pick up some screw in flourescents?

I have 3 amazon swords, 1 mature, and 2 "babies" 1 crypt, some Italian Vallisneria, and 2 green hedges.

Thanks.

 

[zig]

Have a look at the pinned article on lighting at the top of this section of the forum it will give you a better idea of what you will need, normal incandecsent lighting wont do im afraid.

 

[Lateral Line]

The fact is, I used to use incandescent when that was all there was, and grew plants fine. Their spectrum is less then ideal, and they waste huge, like really HUGE amounts of power, but they are better then a badly chosen fluorescent lamp.

If you can get a screw in CF with a decent colour temperature and spectrum, you will have an improved result and lower bills.

Be aware, most plants called ""something" hedge" are not really aquatic plants and will not live long underwater. I was saddened to be at a Malaysian plant nuresery and they were literally packing their lawn hedge trimmings as "Red Hedge Plant".