Lighting open top tank

[AGGRO]

Backround: I'm setting up an 30gal.breeder tank( 30X18X12) for a large school of cory. cats and plan on having both submersed and emersed plants in the tank. I'll primarily be using sword plants (Echinodorus sp.) and maybe some Sagittaria sp. or others. I'd like to keep the tank open topped so that the emersed plants can grow out of the water and so that I can set some other bog type house plants up around the tank. I like the look of using individual spot lights to light the tank, but I can't really use metal halide or other high output lights because of the heat they put off (the tank will be in a small room that already has several reptile tanks and an orchid closet that all give off lots 'o heat.)
Question: Can I use the compact fluorescent bulbs that can be screwed into regular light receptacles? If I use three, 15watt (box says that it's equvilant to three 60watt incadescents in brightness) lights at about 12in. above the tank surface.....will this be enough light to successfully grow the plants (specifically the swords)?
Thanx ahead of time for any help or info.

-----Roy

[djlen]

I don't think 3 of them, at that height is going to be optimal. It may be workable, but I'd go with 4 of them.
45 watts/CF right on your tank would give you 1.5watts/gal., but you want to raise it, giving it a bunch of space between itself and the tank, plus the distance between the water surface and the substrate. That's asking a lot from the 3 fixtures.

Len