Good questions jacblades.
--I did not buy the tank; it was a gift to me from a friend. This tank was a proto-type tank by one of the big acrylic tank companies, originally made to take advantage of scrap materials. However, it was found to be too expensive to produce, so it was discontinued.
--The tank came with a 9watt power compact flourescent bulb (back of the tank) with a built in reflector, but I bought an additional fixture from an LFs from the Jalli brand. This small fixture can fit over something as small as a 5.5g tank, comes with stands to elevate the fixture over the tank (which I didn't use because of the design of my cube), and houses 2x 13 watt power compact flourescent as well as reflectors. It has ventalation holes, and switches for both bulbs. It set me back $60.
--wpg doesn't apply to very, very small tanks, or very very big ones, because plant needs for light is based on receiving a certain amount of lumens, not based on how many lumens there are per gallon of water. 5wpg means something completely different between a 1 gallon tank and a 50 gallon tank. Even if a 1 gallon tank gets 5wpg (considered "high" lighting conditions), the plants will not be getting their needs in lumen exposure, and will probably not survive. Ultimately, the best way to consider lighting is to consider lumens-- being that is rather complicated, we use the wpg rule as a "basic rule of thumb," but must remember to use it only for average sized tanks.
--I did not buy the tank; it was a gift to me from a friend. This tank was a proto-type tank by one of the big acrylic tank companies, originally made to take advantage of scrap materials. However, it was found to be too expensive to produce, so it was discontinued.
--The tank came with a 9watt power compact flourescent bulb (back of the tank) with a built in reflector, but I bought an additional fixture from an LFs from the Jalli brand. This small fixture can fit over something as small as a 5.5g tank, comes with stands to elevate the fixture over the tank (which I didn't use because of the design of my cube), and houses 2x 13 watt power compact flourescent as well as reflectors. It has ventalation holes, and switches for both bulbs. It set me back $60.
--wpg doesn't apply to very, very small tanks, or very very big ones, because plant needs for light is based on receiving a certain amount of lumens, not based on how many lumens there are per gallon of water. 5wpg means something completely different between a 1 gallon tank and a 50 gallon tank. Even if a 1 gallon tank gets 5wpg (considered "high" lighting conditions), the plants will not be getting their needs in lumen exposure, and will probably not survive. Ultimately, the best way to consider lighting is to consider lumens-- being that is rather complicated, we use the wpg rule as a "basic rule of thumb," but must remember to use it only for average sized tanks.
