Really Confused On Lighting. Are Compact Florecents Any Good?

[Electricity]

Hey, so I have a 35G hex tank that I'm attempting to grow plants in. Unfortunately it did not come with a hood, and I have been unsuccessful in finding one, so I finally gave up and bought something similar to this
That holds 3 light bulbs, and hangs above my tank, I have two of these in the 60 watt, natural light variety

and one blue indoor plant growing light, that is 75 watts.
Theoretically I have ~5.5wpg, however I'm not sure if that only applies to strip lighting, and if so, do I have enough lighting? to much?
If this works just as well as as tube lighting, I saved a boat load of money, the Compact Fluorescent bulbs where $2.50 for a 4 pack, the grow light was $4, the fixture was $15, and the chain/hook to hang everything was under ten bucks. So i spent a total of <$30 for everything, with spare lights.

I've been using the Compact Fluorescent bulbs in a 10G hood in another tank for a while, unfortunately the tank is unplanted, but the CFs light the tank MUCH better then the cheap Incandecent? bulbs that came with the hood. The color is much brighter and more natural.
In the 35G the lighting appears to be very bright (brighter then when I put 2 36" tube lights from another tank over the tank to compare).
If this works, then I'm going to replace all of my strip lighting with CFs, as they seem to use a lot less energy, last longer, and are increadibly inexpensive. I can theoretically replace the 2 36" for under $20.


Here are some pictures.
The 10G (now belongs to a friend).
Note the left side is a CF bulb, and the right side is the stock incandecent bulb.

Here is a picture of the whole tank, so you can see the light fixture, I do appologize for cell phone pictures, they are all I have at the moment (it being 4 am, and my fiance is asleep.)

And a Close up of the tank itself.

One of the biggest downsides to a Hex that I've noticed is that because each panel is only 1/6th the total surface area of the tank, its hard to look at everything in the tank from one side.

Anyway, thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated, My plants and fish don't seem mind the lighting at all, but I would like to plant a bit heavier, and begin introducing ferts (and possibly CO2, after I figure this lighting thing out).
Cheers!
-E

 

[Colin_T]

Your links no longer work I'm afraid.

You can use compact fluoros for plant tanks but you need to get globes with a higher Kelvin (K) rating than standard. The most common ones have a 3,000K rating and it's too low for plants. The next one is about 5,000K and is ok but if you can find globes with a higher Kelvin rating then they are a bit better again.
Having a blue light on it will probably help because blue light is generally up around 20,000K, which is a bit high on its own but fine if mixed with other globes.

the long thin green & white striped plants are called Japanese Rush and will not survive under water for more than a few weeks. And the short thin dark green ones next to the Japanese rush look like pongo or mondo grass and it is a marsh plant as well.

 

[Electricity]

Well thats unfortunate about the plants, I just got them from petsmart (groan..), You'd think they wouldn't carry them.
As far as the links, it appears the entire website is down, but should be up soon. I'll definitely look into bulbs with a higher kelvin rating.
Thanks for the advice!